ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the progress of a hallucinatory state that developed during the course of an analysis and illustrates how the patient’s self was recomposed in a process whereby his confusing and destructuring superego evolved into one that was more characteristic of melancholia. It describes the psychic experience resulting from the action of the psychotic superego, involving, for example, condemnation, accusation, and mental terror, and shows how the process of recovery was thereby impeded. The chapter discusses that the road travelled by the patient in order to emerge from the psychotic state, the obstacles overcome, and my own frequent moments of difficulty and loss of bearings. It considers the constant recourse by patient and analyst alike to the analytic method as the only possible therapeutic approach. The hallucinations could occur anywhere and at any time. The experience of hallucinations is preceded by loss of the perception of psychic reality and of the sense of spatial and personal identity.
