An interesting case of a highly intelligent and gifted woman who was in analysis with the author for four years is presented. The patient was a borderline schizophrenic with manic and paranoid features and feelings of superiority. Before entering treatment she had analyzed herself for several years and had, on

the basis of this, constructed a system of psychopathology which had considerable merit. Her system of defenses was in the main directed toward contradicting her sadism and insecurity, engendered by the hostile maternal environment suffered in her early childhood. During analysis the patient showed considerable improvement. She first worked through her resistance against the breakdown of her omnipotent and narcissistic defenses; this was followed by a period of regression in which she experienced the despair and depression that had necessitated their construction. In the terminal period, she reconstructed them on a more realistic level.