The authors state that the unconscious compulsion to repeat painful experiences in order to undo them & make them more pleasurable is a constant source of conflict for patients with emotional problems. A 33-year-old woman with a long history of hospitalizations had received ECT, drug therapy, as well as individual & marital therapies. Through family therapy, she began to extricate herself from a pathological attachment to her troubled family of origin & supplement some of her needs. (NBB)