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Borderline and Narcissistic Conditions
February 28, 2022 @ 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm, Wyman Classroom
Integrated Child & Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ICAPP)
2021-22, 3rd Block — Mondays, 6:30-7:45pm
Scot Gibson, MD
Kelly Lippman, LMHC
View Whole Syllabus
February 28, 2022 — Borderline Personality
[41 pages]
Fonagy, P. (2000) Attachment and Borderline Personality Disorder, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 48:1129-1146.
Sir Peter Fonagy is another research-oriented psychoanalyst who has, like Kernberg and his group, developed psychoanalytically-based manualized therapies for personality pathology. He and his group (including Mary Target and Anthony Bateman) developed the concept of mentalization, which is based on Bowlby, Ainsworth, and Main’s attachment research. The concept and his modes of treatment based on it have been extremely popular and influential in the last 20 years.
Winnicott, D.W. (1969) The Use of an Object. IJP, 50:711-716.
This short paper by Winnicott outlines his concept of object usage, which is the process by which a child discovers, through attempts to destroy an object, that the object is separate from her and thus cannot be destroyed through hostile feelings. Prior to this, the child feels that all objects live within her sphere of omnipotence, and thus are not safe from her aggressive impulses. Only after this separateness has been established, can the object truly be available to be “used” in her ongoing development. This simple idea is an expression of the genius of Winnicott, and has enormous implications for treatment, including the use of aggression by the patient to establish a sense of safety within the therapeutic dyad.
Geist, R.A. (2011). The Forward Edge, Connectedness, and the Therapeutic Process. Int. J. Psychoanal. Self Psychol., 6(2):235-251.
This is a lovely case example, by a supremely sensitive therapist, of a woman who would very likely be diagnosed with “borderline personality disorder.” It shows (among many ideas) how the focus on the connectedness within the dyad, despite expressions of aggression by the patient, creates the environment for growth and a movement toward health.
