I SHOULD LIKE TO OFFER YET ANOTHER contribution to the already burgeoning literature on primitive mental states. My rationale for so doing is due to my belief that there still exists "unmined psychoanalytic gold" in those primitive hills which is very worthwhile exploring. My contribution is in three parts: in the first part I review and revise the psychoanalytic conception of inchoate mental life in its normal and abnormal elaborations so as to apply a revised schema of psychopathology to borderline and narcissistic conditions in parts two and three respectively. I seek also to re-establish the connection between psychosis and borderline conditions so as to emphasize their continuity rather than emphasize their differences, and I also seek to revise the conception of neuroses as constituting a more sophisticated series of defenses against psychotic-borderline-narcissistic difficulties.