A thirty-two-year-old clergyman acted out his impulses throughout his life. Analysis showed that this was a defense of the ego to maintain repression of guilt feelings. The unconscious guilt was connected with his Oedipal hatred of his father. The repetitious character of his acting out appeared to be a belated effort to master the Oedipus complex. Its purpose was to demonstrate that he really had nothing to fear, that he was the powerful one, that he had good reason to hate his father, and therefore need not feel guilty.

Acting out in this patient had several causes: the strength of his repressed fantasies; a disturbing situation in his current life; the narcissism of his ego, weakened by long dependency upon a narcissistic mother; unconscious encouragement by his mother to act out by her condoning his antisocial behavior; and defects in the introjected father which offered a defense against guilt to his ego.