Rycroft describes material from the analysis of a paranoid schizophrenic patient, comparing it with that of the Schreber case and delineating various defensive layers within the thought disorder. He particularly emphasizes how the

decathexis of reality and instinct to avoid guilt and anxiety led to a loss of identity; the loss of identity then was combated by the construction of a megalomanic delusion. The delusions of omnipotence were in turn threatened by contact with people who held incompatible conceptions of reality, and therefore the delusions had to be safeguarded by seclusiveness and modifications in their content.