title: Schizophrenic delusions and their pre-psychotic antecedents.
abstract: The fact that schizophrenic psychoses, at their onset, may present wish as well as persecutory delusions has been taken as the starting point for a study of the antecedents of these psychotic manifestations. It is suggested that these antecedents consist of wish fantasies which are active during the pre-psychotic phase of the psychosis. These wish fantasies differ with respect to their aims and objects. In the pre-psychotic phase they find expression in an identification with the object but when psychical dissolution takes place the identification assumes a grossly pathological form. These psychotic identifications play a major role in determining the nature of the delusional content.
mesh_terms: D003702:Delusions / Q000523:psychology*; D005201:Fantasy; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D009769:Object Attachment; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*