Age regression with unexpected reappearance of a repressed childhood language.

Abstract This paper describes the case of a 26-year-old, third-generation Japanese-American born in California 5 days before Pearl Harbor, who thought he knew no Japanese. When hypnotically age-regressed to levels below age 4, he spontaneously and unexpectedly spoke Japanese, while he spoke only English at the adult as well as at age-regression levels above 4 years. The psychodynamics of the patient's repression of the childhood language and questions pertaining to the nature and theory of age regression are discussed.