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This paper adopts a psychoanalytical perspective and draws on work with analysands to explore the nature of clinical practice with patients devoid of affect, thought or emotional resonance. He argues that in cases such as these, one may speak in terms of a total ‘appropriation’ of the subject by an intrusive, degrading object which disallows all pleasure, the expression of needs, autonomy or differentiation. Recognising the subjective, perceptive elements which emerge from time to time in the patient’s discourse is one possible avenue in clinical situations which clearly shed light on desertification as a means of fighting against a ‘colonising object.’