Discussion

Since it is impossible to do justice to all the problems raised by the speaker, and also since I subscribe, in substance, to all of his views, I shall limit myself to touching upon and to developing certain points.

It is clear that the problems we are confronted with in the case material presented by Dr. Ehrenwald deal, to a large extent, with the primitive archaic ego. For it is on that level of development that the ego operates with certain basic mechanisms, such as primary identification, introjection, projection, and denial on a large scale; it is also on that level that fusion with the essential parental (in most cases, maternal) figure plays such a predominant role. This symbiotic relationship is maintained at a very early stage of development as the only relationship possible. However, at later stages, it may still be resorted to by the ego which feels threatened by a fear of disintegration. The feeling of loneliness, the dread of being abandoned, the terror of being victimized by the dangerous outside world, seem to be warded off by maintaining a symbiotic relationship. I should like to remind you in this connection that some of the basic symptoms of the catatonic series, such as catalepsy and automatism of command, can be understood on the basis of the ego divesting itself, as it were, of its own power and submitting irrevocably and unconditionally to the outside will of a magically omnipotent person. Moreover, some of the opposite symptoms of the same catatonic series, such as negativism accompanied, at times, by insurmountable selective muscular rigidity, appear as the defensive reaction of an ego which feels threatened by absorption, or by fusion with a powerful external figure.

Some other symptoms of the catatonic and paranoid series, which have been described under the heading of mental automatism (Clérambault), such as ideas of influence, the theft or reading of thoughts, can be viewed as disturbances of the functions of the ego which have been taken ov