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The author attempts to classify the diagnostic bases for depersonalization. He presents eight clinical cases which he classified under three headings: 1. Acute transitory depersonalization in the course of neurosis. 2. Depersonalization-neurosis. 3. Chronic depersonalization in the course of a neurosis. One of these, a patient with a depersonalization neurosis, is presented in detail.
Bouvet notes that the crisis of depersonalization appears when the optimum distance between the patient and the narcissistic object is altered, either in the sense of an excessive distance or proximity to it. Depersonalization is a defense against an actual or potential danger and constitutes a device directed against psychological consequences of the loss of the object; consequently, it tends to preserve the sense of reality. As such, depersonalization is the antithesis of the delusion and is a defense against psychosis. It is a state similar to that of the infant who is separated from the maternal object; it is marked by the affective dependence upon the narcissistic object and the intensity of the need to maintain the affective bond with it. This explains why pregenital fixations