ABSTRACT
People suffering from narcissistic personality disorders require therapeutic treatment that permits the reconstruction within the therapeutic container of the patient's basic narcissistic strivings. Failures in infant care at such an early stage are often registered physically rather than mentally and are 'remembered' by the body. Mostly, the initial negative transference is concealed and denied, but Harry had brought it into the therapy explicitly soon after beginning the work. Technically, it is difficult to establish a working alliance when there is an early negative transference, or negative therapeutic reaction. Generally, narcissistic personality disorder patients have responded to care-taking failures in early childhood by setting up structures of self-care, such as Harry's 'automaton-self', that are resistant to change. The Jungian child analyst, Michael Fordham, wrote about an infant observation during which a little boy was left by his mother. The slightest setback suffices to drive a narcissistic patient into a grandiose withdrawal.
