ABSTRACT
The symbiotic phase builds a common skin, a common border between the baby and its object. This phase corresponds to the “paranoid-schizoid position”. This position can be called the “symbiotic position” which is a less psychopathological term (as well as “auto-sensual position” rather than “autistic position”). In psychopathology, the symbiotic position dominates symbiotic psychosis, in which symbiosis is associated with destructiveness. “Normal” symbiosis is open, while destructive symbiosis is closed. Symbiotic psychosis is often a way out of autism. In the symbiotic position, the processes of projective identification and splitting are at work, fighting against the anxieties of persecution and separation.
