By means of some aspects of an analysis, the author shows how the fear of being murdered may form part of the secret fantasy of being an exception. This fantasy should offer protection against being helplessly at the mercy of intense feelings which cannot be integrated, and of an intolerable loss of the sense of self, which renders true separation impossible. During the course of development the fantasy gradually assumes its definitive form. One element of this definitive form is that the analysand exists in a state of adulthood as he imagined it as a child. Control and autonomy here seem guaranteed, and dependence, helplessness and ridiculousness have been overcome. For the creation of such a fantasy, the analysand makes ‘a great leap forward’ at one or more stages of his development. The author indicates how a leap of this kind could be imagined in intrapsychic terms.