Three women in psychotherapy were studied in an attempt to determine the connections between ego depletion and repletion and respiratory symptoms. Each woman had had pulmonary tuberculosis years previously which was arrested, but various respiratory symptoms remained: chronic bronchitis, cough with hemoptysis, bronchial wheezing with hemoptysis. Physical and emotional symptoms developed with the loss of self-esteem either through the loss of a critical relationship or through personally unacceptable behavior. The loss of self-esteem was considered to be ego depletion, psychological exhaustion. With the fulfilment of the ego ideal, energy is again available for the maintenance of psychological and physiological homeostases.