The author discusses what he considers to be a heretofore unexplored affect, vengeance. Its early forerunners are seen as traumatic in the pregenital period and primarily related to oral frustrations. Vengeance is also seen as an attempt on the part of the ego to destroy the hated object. In addition, the aim is to project undesirable parts of the self onto the hated object. A distinction is made between the origins of paranoia, depression, and vengeance in terms of the vicissitudes of object relations. At times masochistic behavior may be resorted to as a disguise, but the main aim in such cases is to inflict pain and suffering onto the hated object. The author sees the vengeful person reacting to life's losses and disappointments as though they represented the depriving mother. An attempt is made to explore the genital contributions to vengeance and to study its development from the structural point of view. 'Vengefulness constitutes an effort to express and forcibly secure instinctual needs, to assuage guilt, to relieve fear and aggression.'