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The phantasy object is one of the various manifestations of superego formation which has been intensively studied by the psychoanalyst. In the course of our work with children on the Children's Ward of the Psychiatric Division of Bellevue Hospital, we have noticed that phantasy objects, or, if one prefers, internalized objects, are a common finding. We have found that when a description of a phantasy object is elicited from the child, it has served as a further aid in understanding the clinical picture. Leading questions are avoided if possible. A general question such as, “What have you within your body ?” is sometimes sufficient. If this fails to elicit a response, a more leading question such as, “Have you a little person inside you?” is more effective. As most of our children are going through the latency period, questions dealing with god or the devil also stimulate productions about introjected objects. In children who complain of hallucinations, the connection between the hallucination and phantasy object is soon established.
To illustrate how the type of phantasy object sheds light on the clinical picture, several typical cases will be described. The first group of cases is that of childhood schizophrenia; there are 2 cases in this group.
The first is that of F.S., who was ten years old at the time she was observed in 1935. F.S. stated that she was in the hospital because she had a brain-body, and that it was located in the region of the navel. “It's inside the body”, she said, and, “It does you no good.” On another occasion she remarked, “It's made up of a lot of little bones with veins in between. My mother happened to mention it. I saw it in my imagination.”
The second case in this series is that of an eleven-year-old Jewish boy who had spent a number of months on our ward because of his