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In this collection of papers, psychoanalysts grapple with the nature of psychosis using an object relational framework to understand preobject states, the development of mind, and the “seed” of psychosis. Introductory and concluding chapters by Volkan and Akhtar respectively provide a theoretical envelope for the mostly case-based chapters within the volume, with two contributors developing further aspects of theory. Volkan proposes that the “mad seed,” a psychotic core, develops from the early mother-object undifferentiated matrix in which mind “incubates.” The “core self” develops from this flux of early experience and images as early ego mechanisms (projection, introjection) are used to establish a separation of self and object. When this fails to occur, there is a lack of differentiation and a continued reliance on primitive mechanisms, resulting in a psychotic core. Volkan ascribes this failure to the nature of the “affect saturating the core self”—if “bad” (rage, terror, envy, aggression) and there is an absence of “good” affects to modulate, a “mad seed” develops. In the summary chapter Akhtar acknowledges the role of genetics, but notes the importance of the early mothering environment to help the infant insulate the primitive ego from overstimulation, to regulate affect and establish internal homeostasis. Otherwise the infant is in constant distress, even panic; affect is unmanageable, and excessive aggression is directed toward the self, particularly on “linking” (in the sense described by Bion), the forming of mental connections. This “mad seed” may result in full blown psychosis, or remain encapsulated, or disappear “if a libidinally dominated seed develops” to offset it. If the mad seed dominates the personality, reality will be constructed and used to enact parts of the psychotic self. The analytic solution according to Volkan is to provide a “libidinal seed” through the analyst-analysand relationship, but first to reexperience and master the “bad affe