All holes are the same: emerging from the confusion

The author describes a type of mental development in which the primitive libidinal value of faeces and urine is kept unaltered all through adulthood. In this instance, individuals harbour fantasies of projective identification with the internal parents, denying their real dependence, which leads to a pseudomaturity. These fantasies are usually accompanied by anal and genital masturbation and have intense aggressive content. Furthermore, there is a significant confusion among all body orifices, leading to an inability to distinguish the self from the object, the inner world from outside reality. Individuals with this type of development can only maintain limited object relations and have highly erotized excretory activities. Manipulation of faeces may occur. This structure works as a defence against breakdown, but may also provide pleasure as it gives the illusion of omnipotent control of the object, as typical in pathological organizations. The author presents clinical material and discusses the difficulties of the analysis, in which the patient tries to seduce the analyst into colluding with his mental functioning, primarily as a means of communication as well as a projection of his despair and his disbelief in the analyst's ability to help him.