ABSTRACT
A core of "paranoid" confusion develops, based on the child's perception that the one who is needed and is the source of comfort and nourishment is the source of psychic murder. The theory of the "false self"—based on excessive compliance with the mother's wishes and expectations—developed by the psychoanalyst and paediatrician, Donald Winnicott, is well-known. It is worth examining his account in some detail to see the similarities and differences with the theory of psychic murder syndrome. The formulation of psychic murder syndrome is in some ways close to Winnicott's theory of the False Self, but in addition indicates how the attempted "murder" of the True Self is continued internally, and how the attacks on emotional relationships are perpetrated compulsively and unconsciously. The account of psychic murder syndrome may be compared with some other similar psychoanalytic descriptions—H. Rosenfeld's "internal mafia", W. R. Bion's "attacks on linking", D. Kalsched's "self-care system", and Winnicott's "false self".
