THE "BLACK HOLE"1 IS AN EXPERIENTIAL term which has recently become frequently mentioned by patients suffering from primitive mental disturbances, especially during attachment disruptions (object loss or disappointment) or gaps in treatment (between regular sessions, holiday or weekend breaks, and cancellations). The patients' usage of the term seems to convey a sense of a catastrophic discontinuity of self, of falling over the abyss into the void. It frequently designates a phantasy of their inner mental geography, connoting a picture of a disrupted landscape with a sudden, unexpected confrontation with a cliff, abyss, or hole which seems to be pulling one over its edge. One of the most frequent statements made by these patients is that they "have no floor, " by which they