Two case summaries are presented of women who murdered their children and were amnesic after the crime. Hypnosis was successfully used to recover the events and emotions, and the material obtained sheds considerable light on the causes of the crime and the dynamics of the amnesia. (Both patients had 'confessed' to homicide before hypnosis was introduced.) These women experienced mounting rage which, it is postulated, was defended against by the repeated occurrence of dissociative states. The rage was stimulated by a revival of feelings and memories from their own deprived childhoods, their own strong ever-current need for nurture and their chronic disappointment, and the demands of their children for attention and affection. The relationship between these