In recent years there have been an increasing number of studies of the psychological components of the etiology and pathogenesis of neoplastic disease. Reviews of this literature and discussions of some of the theoretical problems involved include Kowal,1Petschke,2Greene,3,4and LeShan.5In general these appear to indicate the existence of certain life-history patterns in a statistically significant larger percentage of examined cancer patients than of equated controls. Several studies (Peller;6,7LeShan and Worthington;8LeShan, Marvin, and Lyerly9) have shown that it is possible to use these clinical hypotheses to help clarify otherwise anomalous variations in the cancer mortality statistics. One particular aspect of these life-history patterns has been the finding of an underlying emotional orientation which can be described as a bleak and hopeless despair about ever achieving any real satisfactions or meaning in life, apparently existing prior