This book expounds the thesis that all mentally sick persons can be categorized either as "patients," those who suffer the anxiety of mental illness, or as "agents," those who reinforce such anxiety or transmit it to others. Taking power considerations as a main focus, the authors classify all analysands as fitting into four sadomasochistic groups: the sadistic agent ("sadist"), the sadistic patient ("borderlined"), the masochistic agent ("borderliner"), and the masochistic patient ("masochist"). In their introduction, the authors promise a discussion of some potentially fascinating material. This includes a semiotic model of the psychic apparatus; a demonstration of how semiotics permits a systematic analysis of the analysand's speech, actions, and affects; the development of a general psychoanalytic theory based on the sadomasochistic patient-agent dichotomy; an integration of the social and political dimensions of