Two patients with psychomotor epilepsy were seen for more than one hundred hours of psychotherapy. They illustrate the authors' thesis that the content of the psychosomatic seizure, like that of dreams and psychotic ideation, is dependent on past experiences and on the organization of the personality, and is characterized by patterns of organization resembling the primary process. The authors conclude: 'Seizures have an adaptive value representing miscarried attempts to dispel mounting psychological tension not immediately soluble in reality'.