ABSTRACT

It is not without reason that psychotics seem to have a natural vocation for metaphysical and ontological problems. The process of personalization has much to do with the feeling of inhabiting one's body. Heidegger (1927) wrote of the relationship between 'inhabiting' and 'being', between residing and living, occupying space in such a way as to construct and enliven it. We build our space, we occupy it dynamically, we create our own habitat. In German, bauen means both to build and to inhabit. The experience of our body gives structure to the personalization process. When a human being feels himself to be a person, he has already accomplished a great deal in his journey along the developmental road. Winnicott and Melanie Klein agree that it is once the infant can differentiate his relationship with his mother as a whole person distinct from all others that the father, the third party, makes his entry.