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Psychoanalytic and psychiatric literature contains several descriptions of cases where anniversaries of painful and conflictual events in an individual's life possess crucial significances, as in the loss of an ambivalently beloved person (Polloc, 1970, 1971a, 1971b; Mintz, 1971; Niederland, 1974 and Engel, 1975). Individuals who seem to function well and to enjoy sound inner stability can suddenly suffer a mental breakdown on anniversaries: neurotic or psychotic symptoms are manifested. It has long been known that some of those who appear stable and in apparent mental health nurse a latent neurosis: unresolved conflicts can be effectively kept at bay for long periods, by being condemned to an unconscious existence. In addition, clinical experience tells us that life's vicissitudes can alter the structure of an individual's defensive organisation so much so that this conflict is activated and a latent neurosis or psychosis is manifested. These vicissitudes with their fatal consequences are designated the current and precipitating causes of the latent neurosis. Through analysis it is possible to understand the hidden, unconscious