ABSTRACT
The investigation by psychoanalysis of the characteristic modalities of the psychic functioning of non-neurotic psychopathological organisations has contributed to the development of metapsychological propositions related to the topographical structuring of the psychical apparatus. The practical questions raised by patients presenting psychotic modes of functioning, narcissistic pathologies or somatic illnesses have led to the identification of heterogeneous sectors, enclaves or splits at the heart of the psychic topography. The domination and “mineralization” of the analyst reveal the constitution independent of any form of thought of the amential unconscious which, when it is activated, manifests itself in the violent mode of compulsion, taking the form of an acute somatic crisis, a delusion or an auto or hetero-aggressive passage a l'acte. Compulsive acting out may thus be seen as a form of reaction to the threat of “desubjectivation”.
