The applications of psychoanalytic principles to the study and treatment of the psychic problems of the blind were presented, and certain implications of this study for the theory of ego development were suggested. Emphasis was laid on the differentiation of congenital blindness as a direct etiologic factor in personality disorders from other causes, particularly the distorted parent-child interactions and the widespread ambivalence toward the blind. In acquired blindness, it is essential to understand the trauma to the ego, especially the mourning reaction for the loss of the eyes, in order to help the individual to accept himself as a blind person and to utilize his undeveloped resources for optimal recovery.7