Miss Rosalia H., twenty-three years old, who for a number of years made great effort to educate herself as a singer, complained that her beautiful voice did not obey her in certain notes. There appeared choking and tightening sensations in the throat so that the tones sounded strained, and her teacher could therefore not allow her to appear in public. Although this imperfection affected only her middle notes it could not be explained to be due to a defect of her vocal organs, for at times this disturbance was absent and her teacher was very pleased with her, but at other times the slightest excitement, seemingly without any provocation, evoked the choking sensation, and prevented free expansion of the voice. It was not difficult to recognize in this annoying sensation an hysterical conversion. Whether there really appeared a contracture of certain muscles of the vocal chords I have not verified.[21] In the hypnotic analysis which I undertook with this girl I found out the following concerning her vicissitudes and her ailments occasioned through them. She became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at the house of an aunt who had many children of her own, and she thus shared the life of a most unfortunate family. The husband of this aunt, seemingly a pathological personality, abused his wife and children in the most brutal manner and especially pained her by his sexual preference for the servant girl in the house. This became even more obnoxious as the children grew older. When the aunt died Rosalia became the protectress of the orphaned children who were harassed by their father. She took her duties seriously, fought through all conflicts and had to exert her greatest efforts to suppress the manifestations of her contempt for her uncle. It was then that the choking sensation in her throat originated. Whenever she was compelled to swallow an affront, whenever she had to remain silent on hearing a provoking accusation she perceived a scratching in her throat, the tightening and failure of her voice, in brief she had all the localized sensations in her larynx and pharynx which now disturbed her in singing. It was conceivable that she sought the possibility of making herself independent in order to escape the excitement and painful impressions which were daily occurrences in her uncle’s house. An efficient music teacher took an unselfish interest in her, assuring her that her voice entitled her to choose the profession of singing. She began secretly to take lessons of him and because she often went for her lessons with the choking sensation in her throat following some violent scene in the house, a connection was formed between the singing and the hysterical paresthesia for which a way was prepared by the sensitiveness of the organ during singing. The apparatus of which she should have had free control was filled with the remnants of innervation after those numerous scenes of repressed excitement. Since then she has left the house of her