How are you?

In the long process leading to the construction of an identity, be it individual or social, the anal phase asserts its significance. Its deviations, so familiar to therapists, invite further reflection. In 1965, on the basis of Melanie Klein’s observations, Donald Meltzer elaborated a theory of the way internal objects are incorporated. The key to this hypothesis is the theory of the claustrum, which suggests an interpretation of pseudo-maturity (the false-self, the as if state) and its relationship to boundaries. A clinical case is introduced to as an illustration.