'As if' patients fall into a wide spectrum which ranges from the type with a marked lack of ability to relate emotionally in spite of reasonable reality testing, to the more mixed and neurotic types. A patient is described who falls into the middle of this spectrum. Although she presented symptoms of a phobia and anxiety hysteria, they proved to be an overlay to a character disorder of the borderline type. In spite of her symptoms and premorbid character, she acted 'as if' she and her attitudes toward objects were normal. This 'as if' attitude proved to be a screen for relating to objects 'as if' they were transitional in Winnicott's sense of the term. The paradigm for the relationship is that of Aladdin and his genie. This idealized relationship in turn was found to be a defense against a threatening and impossible relationship between a most unacceptable negative self-representation and very primitive object-representations. However, the defense seemed to have assumed the form of an autonomy or fixation which was impregnable to prolonged treatment, even though modification and improvement occurred.