1. Schizophrenia, borderline conditions, and neuroses often involve highly cathected, pathogenic images of a special type, which are archaic relics from infancy and childhood and have not undergone the normal processes of modification and resolution. Some (or all) normal people also have a store of such primal images based on infantile experiences, but in this case they have been decathected, mastered, and effectively assimilated. 2. These images, whether conscious or unconscious, are sometimes (or always) activated in interpersonal relationships and are related to the formation of basic judgments concerning people encountered. In normal adults, under ordinary conditions, such primal judgments do not come directly into awareness; conscious judgments of other people are derivatives of primal judgments, modified by cultural and other influences. 3. Some forms of intuition are derivatives of primal judgments based on primal images. Such intuitions are thus derived from infantile experiences. Other forms may be based on later clinical experience. 4. The possible diagnostic value to the clinician of his own primal judgments is discussed.