Chapter 13 The Development of a More Than Binary Self: Constructing a Common Language Between the Therapist and a Primitively-Organized Schizoid Patient

This chapter focuses on the beginning few years of work with a patient who is reminiscent of what Fairbairn (1940) calls a person with a “recognizably schizoid complexion” to his personality. The relational foundation we were able to create during this early period of our work together allowed subsequent profound analytic work and development over the following decade, but I will only make brief references to the later work in this paper.

Ferenczi (1933), Fairbairn (1940), Winnicott (1945), Guntrip (1971), and Giovacchini (1979), among others, relate schizoid mental processes to traumas in very early care-taking relationships.

Fairbairn (1940, p. 8) sees important schizoid characteristics as omnipotence, isolation and detachment, and a preoccupation with inner reality