In this continuation of a study on lethargy, the author presents clinical material showing the significance in the lethargic process of the unconscious fantasies related to the death instinct, and the psychotic nuclei—love objects that are kept lethargic in the unconscious and the somatization of these objects. He also describes the relationship of foetal psychic life and of birth to the lethargic object. In order to produce the lethargic effect, part of the ego must be at the service of the death instinct. When such impulses are mobilized, the identifications of the patient in his life situation become apparent, thereby liberating the death instinct which until then had been neutralized. In the cases described, the instincts were expressed predominantly at the anal level and the lethargic action was carried out by means of 'toxic gases' equivalent to 'flatus'.