ABSTRACT
The nature of reality-sense has so far been investigated from three different points of view. The first of these can be studied in Ferenczi's classical paper on the subject. This was based on inferences drawn from a behaviouristic study of infants, and knowledge of mental mechanisms observed during the analysis of adults. But although these correlations were of necessity rather sketchy, one point emerged from a study of transitional formations, such as drug addiction. It became clear that by localizing his paranoid systems on the noxious drug, the drug addict is able to preserve his reality-sense from gross psychotic disturbance. And the drug addict converts this into a more reassuring and fascinating chemist's shop, in which, however, the poison cupboard is left unlocked. Study of drug addictions brought out another problem in classification which has also some bearing on the development of reality-sense, viz.: the significance of perversion formations and fetichistic phenomena so commonly accompanying drug habits.
