Cases of neurotic depression with a history of isolation and much family trauma in childhood show three phases of treatment however carefully the analyst explores anxieties, permits mourning, and does not interpret aggression prematurely. In the first phase the patient's emphasis on hopelessness and failure, with its invitation to the analyst to become the omnipotent savior, must be met by interpretation of the patient's ambivalence, emphasis being on his positive feelings and his suppression of anger at his parents for their mistreatment of him. In the middle phase demands may become too primitive for the ego to mediate and modification of standard technique is usually necessary. (In one case perennial lateness was met by change of the treatment hour to a time when the patient could come late and stay overtime.) In a final phase, liberation of aggression in a context of love results in diminution of the distance between self and objects. Termination should include so far as possible the patient's bringing out weaknesses he detects in the analyst and reservations he has felt about the treatment.