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The fact that schizophrenic psychoses, at their onset, may present wish as well as persecutory delusions has been taken as the starting point for a study of the antecedents of these psychotic manifestations. It is suggested that these antecedents consist of wish fantasies which are active during the pre-psychotic phase of the psychosis. These
wish fantasies differ with respect to their aims and objects. In the pre-psychotic phase they find expression in an identification with the object but when psychical dissolution takes place the identification assumes a grossly pathological form. These psychotic identifications play a major role in determining the nature of the delusional content.