A draft of this essay was found among Róheim's unpublished notes and is presented for publication by Werner Muensterberger. The story of Pinocchio is viewed through the psychoanalytic prism in a fresh and crisp manner. Pinocchio, representing the id drives and impulses, undergoes the painful process of maturation and acquisition of the superego structure, represented by the Talking Cricket. In Pinocchio's oedipal struggle, the father image is split into the wholesome goodness of Gepetto and the series of sadistic villains Pinocchio encounters on his way. Even the whale can be recognized as the representation of a Cronus-like, cannibalistic father image. Pinocchio's emergence from the whale's stomach and the rescue of his father in the process represent rebirth or initiation, the rites of which are practiced in diverse primitive cultures. Through this process the boy is identified as a male in his father's image and becomes a member of the tribe. Other aspects of the symbolism of the Pinocchio story are treated in a similarly enlightening manner in this brief and clear article.