85

The issues addressed in this article are the following: 1) there is a clear divergence between neurosis and psychosis due to the fact that the symbolic unconscious is active in the case of the former, and mute in the case of the latter; 2) psychosis frequently has an early origin in the psychic retreat of the child who is living in a sensorial reality antagonistic to the relational reality; 3) the construction of an “other reality,” a world of senses and images, can give rise to delusions and hallucinations which characterize the psychotic state; 4) the psychoanalytic technique has to adapt to the specificity of the psychotic condition, different from the neurotic condition, where the sensorial use of the mind overrides and hinders the capacity to think and use emotions in an appropriate way.