ABSTRACT
Some paranoid–schizoid masochistic patients are so immobilized with rage, loss, envy, and primitive guilt that they make for near impossible transference blockades. They have a profound sense of grievance which can manifest in different ways. This grievance is a direct result of intrapsychic experiences—phantasies—of loss and persecution. Spillius (1997) states:
I have found that in cases of grievance and impenitent experiencing of envy, defences are used not only to maintain and enhance the sense of grievance, but also to evade acknowledging the acute pain and sense of loss, sometimes fear of psychic collapse, that would come from realizing that one wants a good object but really feels that one does not or has not had it. Feeling perpetual grievance and blame, however miserable, is less painful than mourning the loss of the relationships one wishes one had had. [p. 154]
