ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasises the manifest psychotic urge to disconnect arising from psychic allergy to foreign objects and the perceptions they give rise to. Wilfred Bion's development of his concept of "attacks on linking" was part of his exploration of the "psychotic personality" and the part it played in psychotic and non-psychotic neurotic disorders. He suggested that in the psychotic personality projective identification substituted for regression in the neurotic personality. The non-psychotic personality therefore regards the psychotic personality as its greatest threat and the defensive organisations it produces in an attempt to safeguard itself are manifest as neuroses and neurotic characteristics. These include what are often described as narcissistic disorders and it is as well for analysts to keep in mind the defensive function of these pathological organisations which the patient regards as necessary to prevent domination by the psychotic personality.
