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Forbes defends Guntrip's work against the criticisms that he has distorted Fairbairn's theory. Forbes claims that the major differences between Fairbairn and Guntrip are not based on a misunderstanding on the part of Guntrip, and that indeed Guntrip's argument points to a major flaw in Fairbairn's thinking. In developing his position, the author briefly reviews some of the major foundations of Fairbairn's theory. Guntrip's departure from Fairbairn's basic assumptions is a result of his questioning the inner functioning of schizoid patients. According to Guntrip, a major problem for these individuals involves a “primary non-entity.” This way of understanding questions the agent-actionobject point of reference in Fairbairn's thinking. Guntrip claims that nonentity is a problem of absence: a psychological structure that should be doing something to something or somebody is either missing or inactive. Unlike Fairbairn's libidinal and antilibidinal egos, which have been repressed because of their attachment to hurtful objects, Guntrip's regressed ego has no attachments. This is the core of the difference between the two authors: Guntrip diverges from Fairbairn, who claims that the ego and its libido are primarily object-seeking. For Guntrip, the regressed ego does not seek objects; it withdraws from them.
The notion of the ego's primary aim is another major difference between the two theories. Guntrip equates his notion of a regressed ego with Winnicott's concept of a hidden “true self.” Accordingly, he argues that the ego's primary aim is not object relations, but to become a person. Thus, he explicitly diverges from Fairbairn when he proposes that object relations are not the primary goal of human existence, but the means to what he considers the primary goal, that is, becoming a person.
The treatment of the developmental process and its clinical implications constitutes another major difference between Guntrip and Fairbairn. Fairbairn recommends psychic integration. The