Being a corpse and having other people behave like corpses are the essentials of a necrophilic fantasy which determined the character structure and personal relations of a forty-year-old man. When others were the corpse, they had to be immobile and compliant and to make no demands. When he was the corpse, he was castrated, lifeless, inanimate, and dependent on others for his existence. In any relationship, he and the other person shared one life between them. The idea of being a corpse also served as a defense against pain, anxiety, and the fear of death.

Segal suspects a fixation in the 'paranoid' phase at the very start of life, when the patient suffered a severe deprivation.