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A middle-aged man consulted the author when his psychotherapist of very long standing went on maternity leave. At about the same time, the patient had been fired from his job because of seemingly deliberate poor performance. Early in the course of intensive psychotherapy, therapist and patient established some consensus that he feared he would hurt his father if he were to succeed in his profession. Then the patient recovered memories of traumatic childhood experiences that were characterized by defective control of both aggressive and libidinous impulses by beloved relatives. Later, the patient staged crises that seemed aimed at testing the therapist. In one, he informed the therapist that he was performing sexual acts with his sleeping stepdaughter. The therapist confronted him calmly with the gravity of his situation, and counseled him firmly to cease that practice. This behavior was sufficiently different from that of his mother to allow the patient to discover a deep identification with a father whose own behavior was impulsive and immoral. Eventually, he was able to see that his professional inadequacy and his incestuous acts were both precipitated by a sense of guilt for having been more fortunate than his father both in work and in love.