The author presents a particular clinical configuration that is constituted, in both male and female patients, by a pessimistic and “operational” (opératoire) vision of affective relations, underpinned by the pervasive presence of cruel and authoritarian imagos. These seem to stem from a parental dysfunction marked by an inability to assume one’s responsibilities and to respect what is prohibited. The author draws on the work of J.-L. Donnet, N. Zilkha and P. Denis on the superego, offering an interpretation of it from which directions for analytic treatment might emerge. These focus in particular on the possible place of humour and, above all, for the author, of work “side by side” which aims to free the subject from issues of omnipotence and to foster a “loss of disillusions”. A link is suggested with the work of Philip Roth.