Study and treatment of a number of women who had been unable to consummate intercourse even after years of marriage led to the conclusion that in some cases the problem was due to the feeling of being 'too small for father'. Many women with such vaginismus showed no other important neurotic symptoms. The women fell into two groups: those at the Oedipal level, with fixation to the father, and those with fixation to the mother, who show evidence of 'castration complex'.