Affective storm and psychosis

People with a sensitivity for psychosis can be overwhelmed by their drives, whether or not triggered by current (traumatic) life events, which can cause a real affective storm. This can lead to a psychotic breakdown provoked by the «attacks on linking», as described by Bion. Such a breakdown destroys the inner world, fragments of which appear in the delusions and hallucinations constructed by the person in crisis to as to avoid the internal mental pain. Bion's theory of the digestive function of the dream is here exemplified. Two examples illustrate how the dreamworkalfa of the therapeutic team in a residential setting or of a psychiatrist in an outpatient setting temporarily takes over the dream capacity of the person in crisis, until that person can dream and think again independently.