Hallucination in Adolescence-Or, Nora in Nowhereland Between Neurosis and Psychosis.

The authors present a case history in which they investigate the psychic mechanisms behind the production and function of adolescent hallucinations against the background of Freud's framework and Laplanche's concept of enigmatic messages. They conclude that these hallucinations, although to all appearance psychotic, are basically neurotic in nature, and that both their content and hallucinatory form serve to protect the defense mechanisms with which parents ward off their unconscious conflicts.