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Salzman takes exception to the theory, introduced by Freud, that paranoid development stems from repressed homosexual wishes, and that grandiosity is a secondary development. He proposes the reverse: that the grandiosity is primary and that the paranoid response results from realistic rejections and frustrations to the grandiose claims. The author cites a number of cases in which the element of grandiosity is prominent from the inception of the paranoid response. He offers some theoretical conceptions to account for the grandiosity: remnants of infantile omnipotent feelings and the struggle to re-establish them, a defense against a beginning loss of self-esteem, and germs of truth from environmental features, such as being a gifted, only child. While this is an interesting idea, it overlooks the identification with the omnipotent father as an additional factor. Also, the ubiquitous homosexual conflicts in paranoia cannot be explained away by this desexualized theory. Therapeutic techniques stemming from this theoretical formulation are outlined; and here, too, the author believes he debunks established ideas. He feels that reason and logic can be a wedge to undo a delusional system if one casts doubt upon it by tracing it back through its false premises to the underlying truth.