In this paper, I set out to show how early environmental failure, notably the mother's inability to receive and modify infantile projections, together with her use of the child for her own projections, interacted with Lisa's own savage superego. This resulted in Lisa's distrust and hatred of herself and her objects, and excessive splitting and projective identification, leaving her paralysed and withdrawn. In the course of four and a half years' work, some of the persecution and deadly despair gave way to depressive feelings, there was a growing capacity to distinguish between internal and external reality, and a modification in the superego which led to more trust in herself and belief in her capacity to repair.