ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the problem of stealing as a disturbance related to difficulties in coming to a recognition and acknowledgement of the need for an object. She presents clinical notes on three adolescent boys: John, James, and Paul. She presents the clinical material in such detail in an attempt to show just what these patients felt themselves to be doing, and to illustrate the consequences of this resort to primitive defences in an attempt to escape the unbearable feelings aroused by the experience of dependence. She indicates the similarities found in these patients and the differences, and shows how interpretation of the normal splitting processes revealed the underlying greedy and envious rush, which was being defended against. The problem with these ways of defending against anxiety lies in the degree and intensity of the feelings, for she has seen how profoundly persecuted these patients felt – either by the internal object or, when projected, by external objects.
