Donald (age 22) attended college at night while working to support his forty five year old mother. He was in love with a girl whom he hoped to marry. Donald's mother, however, did not like the girl and tried to break them up. The girl could see that Donald would never be able to support both her and his mother. She also knew that the three of them could never get along together under the same roof. She gave Donald a month to decide what to do about it. A week before the deadline, he suddenly disappeared. He was found two weeks later in another state, completely unable to say who he was, where he was, or what he was planning to do. He could not recall, or even recognize, the name of either his mother or his girl friend. Obviously this was his solution to the conflict. This behavior was not inconsistent with his previous history. In his earlier school days, he had frequently forgotten his homework and been absent minded. Forgetting things was already a convenient habit for him.
