In this study a sample of fifteen adult psychiatric patients whose mothers had died when they were between three months and four years of age (early bereaved) are compared with fifteen patients whose mothers had died during the adolescent period (late bereaved). The authors are struck by the existence of strong dependency needs with numerous clinical manifestations in adulthood in the group of early bereaved. They hypothesize that if death removes the mother from her infant or young child, the need and craving for the mother's love, normal at that early stage of development, is not eliminated but instead may appear in late life, both intensified and displaced onto mother surrogates.