[Fear of the mad.]

The author shows us that, apart from a physical fear that we may experience at times, there exists a more subtle and destructive fear of the insane which determined - and still determines in many circumstances - the attitudes and even the policies which we advocate in regard to the mentally ill. The fear of being overcome, of being consumed by the avidity, the hate, and the projective identification which exist in the psychotic. In the face of this fear we have developed a series of rather inadequate and inefficient defense mechanisms which range from the denial of insanity to institutiona-lization and include all forms of activism and intolerance. In the end, however, this fear must not create in us a state of helplessness nor an oppressive reaction of omnipotence. Perhaps all that is necessary is simply to continue to listen to oneself and others?