Previously, the author differentiated the ECG changes induced by a transient emotional tension from those produced by a persistent stressful life situation ; the former as a reflex and the latter as an adaptation. By studying those patients in whom arrhythmia was confirmed to be transient and from whom preceding mental events were drawn out by analytic history taking, the relations between the characteristic of mental events, age and the pattern of arrhythmia were investigated. Psychogenic paroxysmal cardiac arrhythmia might be a manifestation of an excess counter-regulation.