The sinking feeling facilitates, as do other screen sensations reported by analysands, the acceptance of interpretations incorporating present, past, and transference aspects because of the controlled regression and undisturbed observing ego functions entailed in the capacity to experience such sensations. The data suggest that the sinking feeling reflects an acceptance of an aspect of reality previously denied, and that this event, while manifested at any libidinal level of organization, has separation as a common denominator.