“I can’t come [to the session], I feel it … I’m a piece of shit … I’ll come as soon as I feel human …”

Sophie’s analysis exploded in a new crisis. Life in the claustrum, when this is the internal mother’s anal world, is believed to lead to the epitome of perversion. Unusually clear evidence of the phenomenology of this type of perversion is described below. It nevertheless seemed possible for her to take steps out of this personality structure. This progress surfaced in the form of what appeared to be real affectionate feelings and in her constant oscillation between being inside and outside the claustrum. This state of swaying in and out was described by her as feeling “… deeply confused about myself … I don’t have a picture of myself as everybody does … I don’t really know who I am.” A particularly important piece of evidence of her being sometimes outside the claustrum and in some genuine emotional contact with the world was her occasional sharp awareness of her own troubled condition.