| Abstract: | Describes borderline personality disorder (BPD) as arising from a restriction in the initial duality of merger and separateness in which the self is left dependent on the merged caregiver for cohesion. Such enfeeblement of self arises from a derailment of the formation of the nuclear self prior to age 3. BPD patients thus have no coherent self, and when threatened with fragmentation from some fissure in close relationships, react with panic and rage. Most characteristic of the defenses of BPD patients is splitting and the resultant idealization and devaluation within relationships. From a self psychology perspective, the BPD patient's self will grow by phase appropriate empathic responsiveness embedded in a matrix of idealizing, mirroring, and alter ego transferences. Treatment should focus on the transference that develops around the patient's striving for independence. A case illustration is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
