An analysis started after the spontaneous social recovery of a patient from psychosis showed that the patient did not, as is usually supposed, recover by being convinced of the reality of the external world. Under stress of an acute internal conflict he felt the need of modifying his psychotic beliefs in order to reinforce and increase his already depreciated self-esteem, further threatened by forces from within. That this secondary modification happened to fit in with reality was a fortuitous, though very happy, circumstance for the patient.