The author reviews Freud's 'A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis' and adds a clinical example. The disturbance is considered to be a disruption in identity based on a revival of Oedipal and preoedipal conflicts. Attention is drawn to defensive aspects of this condition as well as perceptual distortions within the ego based on fluctuating cathexes between present and past object relations. A distinction is made between depersonalization for defensive purposes and identity crisis arising out of intrapsychic conflicts.