ABSTRACT
"Emptiness pathology" is the psychopathological and clinical expression of the schizoid condition and borderline pathology. The schizoid condition and "emptiness pathology" appear linked in schizoid personalities, schizoid psychopathy, in some schizotypal personalities with preserved reality testing, in some acute psychoses, and in some chronic psychoses with few or no delusions or hallucinations. In other schizotypal personalities with loss of reality judgment and in chronic schizoaffective disorder with few delusions and hallucinations, the symptoms of emptiness tend to be marked. In W. F. D. Fairbairn's model, "emptiness pathology" originates in schizoid conflict and primary and secondary identifications. In "emptiness pathology", the child relates to an empty breast, which leads him to relate to an empty mother; however, although they are empty, they are still useful because they protect the child from object loss and abandonment. Since they are transitional objects, the analyst may acquire these qualities through identifications with the breast and with the mother.
