Histrionics are most often taken as an instrument of interpersonal relations. However, in the case reported they are seen chiefly as an adaptive instrument of the ego in its intrapsychic operations. The shifts of affect are viewed as occurring along a continuum extending from the surface of the personality structure in the form of moment-to-moment feelings, through middle levels of shifts in sentiment and mood, down to the level of early internalized objects who, conserved as affective configurations, are summoned to effect alternations in current identifications or seemingly to create environmental change.