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The Division of Legal Medicine of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health took advantage of the relatively stable prison environment to study three male and three female voluntary groups in respect to the differences characterizing them as oral and genital. The predominantly oral groups were male Negro heroin addicts wishing to rid themselves of addiction, passive demanding females wishing to improve in a general sense, male forgers and robbers desiring improvement, and females recommended to therapy by the authority closest to them. The genital groups were aggressive and promiscuous females and rapists and murderers with long sentences. The content of the oral groups dealt largely with dissatisfaction and deprivations of eating with fear of sadistic control and discrimination against themselves. The genital groups alluded to disturbed controls and inadequate knowledge of sexuality, despite frank references to the subject. In the oral groups there was a loss of ego boundaries and a varying response to reality, which was usually faultily perceived. The genital groups respected each other's individuality. During the first months the members of the oral groups identified themselves with the therapist by copying him, and became more realistic about each other, the outside world, and their own personality deformities. The genital groups became more socially disposed and seemed to understand more about the causes of their own personality defects.