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This paper is a preliminary report on the induction of prolonged sleepiness by Chlorpromazine, causing partial disorganization and regression. This disorganization and regression may in turn bring about a reorganization and progression of certain aspects of the psychic structure, and thus produce resolution of symptoms.
Our method is similar in many respects to the anaclitic treatment described by Margolin (12). We induce temporary regression in some aspects of the body scheme (as defined by Scott [13]), permitting the psychic structure to revert to a period prior to the preoedipal frustrations and fixations. When this regression has taken place, gratification of these frustrations is instituted; the fixations may then be abandoned and a relative maturation and progression of the ego may ensue. We maintain, according to this hypothesis, that all positions of fixation are psychophysiological.
Our hypothesis has been implied or explicitly stated in many recent reports. Cameron's concept of 'normalization' (6) implies that a spontaneous reorganization results from disorganizing disease processes. Reorganization may be understood as the expression of a compelling need of the organism to control its environment. Any disorganization or regression may stimulate this need. In Margolin's anaclitic treatment, the patient is caused to regress 'beyond the level which is spontaneously reached in response to illness' (12, p. 29). The recent work of Glueck and others on 'regressive electric shock therapy' (8), Cameron's production of total disorganization with massive