ABSTRACT
Freud considered symptom formation in both the neuroses and psychoses to be "compromises"-between ego and id in the transference neuroses and between lost reality and attempts to regain it in psychoses. The transference neurosis is a prototype of such internal, endogenous pathology. The psychotic regression is to early narcissistic positions that also resulted from traumatic experiences, but in this case of a particularly early and severe kind. Restitutive symptoms in the psychotic, such as hallucinations, delusions, and neologisms, are comparatively healthy attempts to regain contact with objects. The fixation point in depression is midway between an objectless narcissistic state and the beginnings of object strivings. Just as schizophrenic delusions are the schizophrenic's theories about his narcissistic experiences and hypochondriacal symptoms are the hypochondriac's theories about his narcissistic body experiences. So are the preoedipal phobias the young child's theories about his disturbing drives-drives that newly acquired skills have not yet firmly and securely mastered.
