ABSTRACT
This chapter offers one way of understanding Dennis Potter's drama and compares it with some clinical illustrations from psychotic and non-psychotic patients. The chapter begins with a brief clinical illustration from a psychotic patient. It examines a related theme in the narrative that adds a further dimension, the representation of sexuality. Themes of violence and perverse sexuality feature prominently. The chapter explains Herbert Rosenfeld's theory of destructive narcissism using Potter's television drama, and clinical material from psychotic and non-psychotic patients. It shows that how the apparently bizarre world of a schizophrenic patient can be seen as a concrete manifestation of experiences that are common. In a television interview Potter discussed the character of Philip Marlow and the structure of the Singing Detective. The chapter attempts to demonstrate a similarity between the processes involved in the development of Potter's drama and those involved in the process of psychoanalysis.
