This paper's purpose is to state Fairbairn's theory of schizoid reactions and to illustrate it by clinical material. First is the tenet that the goal of libido is not pleasure or subjective gratification but the object itself. By 'object' is meant internalized psychic objects in the good-bad Kleinian sense. Fairbairn's second point is that schizoid and depressive states are the two fundamental types of reaction in bad object relationships, the two basic or ultimate dangers to be escaped from. Paranoid reactions, obsessions, hysterias and phobias are four different defensive techniques for dealing with internal bad objects. Finally, the two forms of internal bad objects are the needed object and the rejecting object. While the schizoid fears he will destroy the needed object by his devouring need to possess it, the depressive fears his hate will destroy the frustrating object. The clinical material presented relies on manifest dream content and anecdotal case reports.