This work strives to understand the process of realizing the self while highlighting compliance as the inability to do so and investigating the wide array of psychopathology that stems from compliance. Man's dual nature as both an infinite and definite being sets a deep need for realizing the self. The function of selfobject experience is seen as helping to maintain structure to contain change and as a vital and natural phenomenon in each and every transformative process. Winnicott's transitional object concept is compared with Kohut's selfobject concept: Both serve as anchors in outer reality, consolidating a potential inner space from which creativity and individuality can be born. Compliance stems from the fear that claiming inner space will damage the hold on the outer world. Through clinical vignettes, a wide array of psychopathology, from temper outbursts to paranoid sensations and psychotic states, is investigated. Implications for treatment and the termination phase are discussed.