As part of our prospective China-based study of attachment in both analyst and patient — assessed at treatment onset — we report a case after two years. This case demonstrates As-If personality traits, which we suggest lies on a False-Self continuum. The As-If features escaped the initial assessment, then manifested itself both as Deutsch described and via projective identification in the analyst’s dreams and ultimately in her personal life. Independent scoring of the patient’s attachment revealed insecure disorganized attachment. This paper clarifies the counter-transferential component of Deutsch’s“As-If” and integrates this concept within False Social Self (Winnicott (1965), Giovacchini (1990). We present this as a cautionary note on psychodynamic diagnosis (PDM Task Force, 2006). Whereas Deutsch, Grinker (1968) and others have written about the personality traits and transferential aspects of As-If, this paper contributes to 1) diagnosis using countertransference, and 2) As-If childhood development. Finally, we speculate that a fundamental aspect of False Self, with As-If as an extreme False Self — compliance or complementarity to someone in power — is adaptive in a totalitarian society. We suggest considering that just as hysteria was associated with the Victorian Era, narcissism with America, we hypothesize that As-If (and False-Self) may be associated with totalitarian China, lying at the extreme end of a continuum of compliance.