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The originality of Dr. Johnson's work lies in his brilliant presentation of the specific symptoms and psychodynamics that symbiotic characters experience throughout the developmental spectrum. He successfully demonstrates that the symbiotic personality as a clinical phenomenon is an entity in its own right, separate and discontinuous from other character disorders such as the oral personality and the narcissistic personality disorder.
The first part of the book is a presentation of Johnson's theory. It borrows from developmental research and the psychoanalytic/ psychotherapy literature data to back up his ground-breaking insights on the symbiotic personality. The second part of the book turns to case studies of patients with a wide range of diagnoses and who experience symbiotic character traits; the neurotic and the borderline personality disorder are two such diagnoses discussed as case examples. As we move from the more primitive developmental stages to the more mature ones, we still can witness basic symbiotic conflicts, argues Johnson. The way these are expressed and worked through, however, will vary according to an individual's structural functioning.