Lomas describes a patient who failed to establish an identity of her own as a result of her ill family forcing an identity on her which conformed to their needs. The patient's illness derived from her inability to establish a sense of individuality or uniqueness and some of her symptoms represented the attempt by her superego to suppress individuality. The author suggests that the psychopathology of a sick family has a pattern of its own in addition to the psychopathology of its individual members. The illness of this patient is described in terms of a failure of family organization; the family lacked communication with the external world and developed excessive dependence upon its members. Their insecurity caused anxieties over possible disintegration and a defensive denial of these fears by the creation of a family myth of mutual love and loyalty. Lomas comments on some of the factors from which a sense of identity is normally derived and how these factors are influenced by an emotionally disturbed family.