It should be understood that we are not describing highly unusual cases; many such have been published. A highly typical one is given by Freud in his analysis of the Schreber case.[2] In this extremely stimulating paper Freud puts forward the claim that all delusions are an attempt at regaining health on the part of the psyche. From a broad psychological standpoint, this is undoubtedly true but the generalization is too wide to be of any practical psychiatric value. Moreover, by choosing for analysis a case which was neither dementia praecox nor paranoia but a combination of the two, he reaches conclusions which are valuable additions to our knowledge of psychotic processes but merely confuse the issue as to the specific mechanisms of paranoia and dementia praecox. In Schreber a profound psychotic reaction corresponded to crude formulations of his fancies, whereas, when he built these ideas into constructive speculations, he became relatively sane and an efficient citizen. If Freud had emphasized the point that this later formulation was more than a vehicle for the cruder thoughts, that it contained components which were potentially of social value, which implied a broader contact with the world--had he done this--then the present paper would be superfluous. [2] Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen uber einen autobiographischen beschrieben Fall von Paranoia (Dementia paranoides). Jahrb. f. psychoanalyt. u. psychopath. Forschungen, Jahrg. III. The first case we wish to present, John McM., is at present thirty-six years of age, unmarried, a Catholic. For at least nine years he has been objectively psychotic, though, according to his own account his delusional habit of thought began seventeen years ago. He had little education but made the most of it and has read widely (for one of his station) on such topics as socialism. He was always somewhat distant and did not make friends easily. From early childhood he was antagonistic towards his father and brother and, since his mother's death six years ago, to whom he was strongly attached, towards an aunt as well. He has struck both his father and his aunt. His antagonism towards his father is of great importance as a determinant for his later symptoms. When young he feared him, as he grew older disputed his authority and, according to the father, always disobeyed him. He was always shy with women and, as we shall see, his first conflict in the sexual sphere was solved by a psychotic reaction. Once an efficient salesman, for the past nine years he has drifted from one position to another. As he says himself, he lost ambition after he decided not to get married, and concluded he would not attempt to gain worldly possessions, but merely enough to subsist on. His early life showed not so much tendency towards elation and depression as towards imaginative thinking with a leaning towards day-dreaming and "mysteries." Of late years his reading has