ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that how for some adults the unfolding of the self through de-integration, and the gradual enlargement and strengthening of the ego through the process of re-integrating whatever the experience was found to be, has not progressed well enough in childhood. Through clinical examples, the chapter considers different degrees of damage and different types of defence, and how these can be worked with in therapy. Meeting a patient for the first time, the therapist will immediately encounter their defensive system. This system will be related to developmental issues and will represent the whole spectrum of psychopathology. Not-dreaming may be a useful and necessary defence against the eruption in near-hallucinatory, terrifying images of contents which the weakened ego could not manage. It is common for patients not to remember dreams until they feel well settled into their therapy. A patient frequently has a series of illusory relationships with their therapist.
