Schizophrenics reach a depressive position and, finding it intolerable, project their depressive anxieties onto an object (the analyst) by projective identification. They thus defend themselves against depression and anxiety. As the schizophrenic improves, greater integration of his impulses into his ego, and awareness of the reality of these impulses, lead to intolerable guilt and distress, with consequent reversal of the process (regression). It is at this point that the patient immediately projects the depressed part of the ego onto the analyst, who is seen as a persecutor,