The relationship of the development of herpes simplex lesions to certain periods of emotional stress, particularly those involving separation, is traced in the case study of a female patient who experienced herpetic eruption on several different occasions in relation to various forms of separation from significant objects. In one case the circumoral lesions could be seen as the 'repressed wish to be kissed, the attendant implication as well as the punishment for the forbidden wish'. On another level they could be viewed as a stigma of orality, and on another, as unconsciously fantasied venereal disease. Although a filterable virus is considered the causative agent in herpes, there is evidence that the virus is not sufficient in itself in the formation of herpetic lesions. Therefore it is postulated that specific emotional responses or other stimuli play a role.