Clinical material from the analysis of a male patient is utilized to delineate one unconscious meaning for the belief in the congenital basis of emotional illness. For this patient, who came to analysis because of estrangement from his wife and guilt over a love affair with a prostitute, the belief represented a complex, intellectualized defense expressing the following: 'I am not to blame for my incestuous masturbation fantasies and acts. They are not my fault but mother's, since I was born with a penis which causes me to behave this way. Therefore, I