ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that incomplete integrations are antecedents of regressions, and that regressions and failures to progress develop-mentally are reflected in schizophrenia. A central psychological postulation is involved in the present proposal: that there are sequential steps of growth which most members of our culture encounter; and that each step contains a central problem which must be at least partially coped with successfully before a new organization of experience can occur adequately on the developmental continuum. The central notion here is that anxiety has its origin in the direct discomfort felt by the infant in response to disapproval by the adult. The adult who has been severely traumatized in the empathic stage of development tends to the most malignant species of schizophrenic behavior. The syndrome is one of a degenerative illness, usually of insidious development. The grandiose schizophrenic makes claims of special power or distinction with little awareness of reality.
