ABSTRACT
Study of the problem of dependence-independence has guided me to the problem of those cases of extreme dependence that we recognize as sym- biosis. I found that the characteristics of the transference relation appearing in the symbioses were equivalent to those of psychotic transference that I had already encountered, both in my own experience with the psycho- analysis of psychotics and in basic writings on this theme, especially those by F. Fromm-Reichmann, E. Pichon Rivière, H. Rosenfeld and W. Bion. On the other hand, I found I was dealing not only with a large quantity of clinical facts closely related to the subject of symbiosis (psychopathy, hypo- chondria, epilepsy, confusional states, psychosomatic affections, etc.) but also with the complex theme of narcissism and development of the ego (identity, body schema, hetero-homosexual differentiation, etc.).
