Nine patients with severe asthma were studied by psychotherapeutic interviews and two cases by psychoanalysis. No single psychological pattern was found. Aside from feelings and fantasies concomitant with the asthmatic attack, which tended to be dominated by absorption in the physical illness, the most common feeling was depression. In somewhat less than half the attacks there were prodromal emotional manifestations which preceded and led directly to the acute asthma; the principal prodromal feature was excitement. The authors suggest that in asthma an initial phase of drive-arousal is followed by a later phase of drive-restraint and inhibition. In their theoretical discussion they describe the intake and expulsive functions of the respiratory apparatus. The acute attack may be set off by loss, leading to an increased need for intake, or it may be set off by stimulation, leading to fantasies that intake had occurred, which arouse urges to expel.