Contributors to this book explore hereditary and constitutional factors, environmental influences and unconscious fantasies in the development of the psychotic core in such patients and provide guidance for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists to hear and therapeutically respond to these patients' uncanny ways of describing their internal worlds.

PART ONE Laying the Groundwork, Chapter 1 The Seed of Madness PART TWO Theory, Clinical Illustrations, and Techniques Chapter 2 On the Origins of the Body Ego and its Implications for Psychotic Vulnerability Chapter 3 Humiliation and Dignity: Reflections on Ego Integrity Chapter 4 The Intersubjective Constitution of the Sense of Disappearing in Schizophrenia: A Phenomenological Description of a Healthy Sibling's Intuitions Chapter 5 A Room within a Room: Clinical Observations of a "Mad" Core Chapter 6 A Crocodile in a Pouch Chapter 7 The Verbal Squiggle Game in Treating the Seriously Disturbed Patient Chapter 8 PART THREE Summarizing Reflections Constitution, Environment, and Fantasy in the Organization of the Psychotic Core.