Once again we are offered an eloquent plea for the continued use of psychodynamically oriented intensive psychotherapy in the treatment of some young psychotic patients. The author presents the history of his long-term treatment of two

patients, a girl who became ill at age fourteen, and a boy whose psychosis began early in college. In both cases, panic over issues of separation and psychosexual development precipitated psychotic withdrawal from reality. Both patients utilized the relationship with the therapist, initially in the hospital, then as outpatients, to make excellent recoveries. The author believes that if "optimal treatment" does not resolve the psychosis, it is because the patient's inner will to master the illness and rejoin the world has been broken and resignation to be a victim of the illness has prevailed.