ABSTRACT
By fusion-related vertigo I refer to the most primitive type of the symptom, one that, so to speak, is the starting point of all the others. It is the vertigo of the patient who has the sensation that his legs are caving in, that he is sinking, that he is about to faint, and the feeling that he is about to disappear, to stop living. The patient is not afraid of falling, because the fear of falling presupposes that he continues to feel that he exists and that he is simply stumbling about in space or in the void. In fusion-related vertigo, he has on the one hand the feeling of being crushed and on the other hand no perception of space or even of the void. He cannot fall into the void; he feels that he is disappearing on the spot.
