ABSTRACT
Detailed clinical examples from a 5½-year analysis illustrate the nature of internal objects that underlies the tendency to regress from obsessional organizations to hypomania. The basis of mania in unconscious phantasy expresses itself by a tendency to turn against good internal objects with oral greed—due to unintegrated primal envy—with the aim of violently removing a structure integral to the breast felt to be penis-like, co-extensive with the nipple, and a source of strength, creativity, and judgement in the mother. The breast-penis, because it is not retained after being stolen without becoming highly persecuting, is projected into father's penis, which becomes idealized and an object of greed at all levels and zones. The breast, now reduced to being a passive container, is open to further attacks, since love and admiration for it have greatly diminished.
