ABSTRACT

Psychoanalysis has shown that different, antithetical beliefs can coexist in the internal world. A psychotic delusion extends beyond unconscious falsification. Delusion can be seen as a falsification of which one is unaware, but which imposes itself on consciousness, causing a progressive alteration of the sense of reality. The dissociated nature of the delusional fantasy and its substantial irreconcilability with emotional reality find important confirmation in certain philosophical reflections. Specific theories postulate a sharp line of distinction between neurosis and psychosis, and contend that withdrawal is a dissociated experience that can be neither integrated nor transformed in the psychic world. The parents’ influence in facilitating vulnerability to psychosis is not expressed solely by their intrusion into the child’s mind, but also by their absence. Pathological personality organizations act as medication for an ego damaged by the insults of reality and incapable of engaging in genuine reparative processes.