Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

October 30, 1956. A SCHIZOID PATIENT. Ludwig Eidelberg, M.D.

In the analysis of a schizoid character, the patient felt his symptoms to be 'not too serious', referred to them all as 'nonsense' which he could stop if he wanted to, but for some reason did not 'want to'. The lack of any serious approach made analysis impossible and four months of preparatory discussions were given to getting the patient to modify his attitude toward his neurosis before exploring his unconscious. Phallic material emerged relative to both the positive and negative Oedipus and aroused sufficient anxiety in the patient to cause him to interrupt his associations and get up from the couch. After another period of discussion the patient resumed the couch, with a great outpouring of material, resenting any attempt to control or regulate his 'daily output'. The schizoid patient is eager to use the basic rule to indulge in an orgy of free associations; he behaves as if ego and superego had little power over his id, leading to the impression held by some authors that his illness represents a 'break through' of infantile wishes against which ego and superego fail to make adequate defenses. This alleged lack of defense is examined in the present case. The defenses are described as different from those of a neurotic and made possible by the patient's ability to split his personality into two parts; one that represented the wish, and one that observed it and made fun of it. He was thus able to represent both subject and object in the primary narcissistic stage of development. The author