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Depersonalization, including its allied states, develops as a transitory defense
against either threatening reality or id impulses. It occurs in individuals strongly fixated in the oral passive dependent stage. The defense constitutes a regression to a symbiotic union with the mother, permitting the coming into consciousness of infantile fantasies. There is sufficient ego strength for splitting into observant and regressed ego parts and for awareness of strange and unreal feelings and thoughts. In those rare instances where there is no accompanying anxiety, the regression may be considered as being in the service of the ego. Depersonalization is furthered in situations where passivity is encouraged. Three short case histories are cited to support the thesis.