ABSTRACT
Inspired by Dr. Bion's work this chapter is based on psychoanalytic therapy with psychotic children and with the psychotic residues in neurotic children. It suggests that the situation described by Dr. Bion as a "psychological catastrophe" is the result of a premature or mismanaged "psychological birth " and that this causes the cognitive inhibition and dysfunctioning which are outstanding features of psychotic states. Clinical material from unintegrated and disintegrated children indicates that critical situations in primary integrations are those occasions when the infant becomes aware that "hard" and "soft" are both "me" sensations, and that both can emanate from the same source outside himself. Ecstasy can enhance the state of oneness experienced by mother and infant. The insecurity of precocious sense of "twoness" leads to pathological manoeuvres to reinstate the sense of oneness. The tantrum, like the ecstasy, needs nurturing which is capable of holding the child together through intense bodily-cum-psychological states.
