Conscious recall of primal scene exposure was elicited in interviews with fifty college-age persons. Their reactions were viewed from three perspectives: the psychoanalytic model (emphasizing libidinal affects and feelings of danger), the existential (emphasizing feelings of aloneness and exclusion with loss of security, rather than sexuality), and the cognitive-affective (emphasizing the effect of the child's inability to understand what he has seen). On the basis of this consciously elicited data, the author concludes that primal scene stimulation usually produces long-term traumatic effects only if it has occurred within a context of generalized brutality and markedly disturbed family relationships. Primal scene exposure may even be beneficial in stimulating healthy curiosity about the "facts of life," sexual activity, and reassurances about the bondedness of the parents.