A case study of borderline anxiety and the process of analytic transformation

Borderline patients present particular treatment problems and require close, devoted understanding of their often chaotic and shifting intrapsychic conflicts. Many of these patients act out, making it difficult to maintain an analytic process. In fact, many terminate early on. When they do stay for longer periods, they exhibit particular constellations of defense, anxiety, and conflict. One extensive case report is used to examine the overlapping cycles of treatment with this population. Frequently, self-destructive acting-out is present in the transference and extra-transference. This acting-out is often followed by the self-destructive, anti-change attitude of the death instinct. These ways of relating to the self and the object are mobilized within the vehicle of projective identification and are best understood as primitive defenses against core fantasies of loss and persecution. These issues of loss and fear are the final and vital phase of treatment with borderline patients, who are often able to make major fundamental changes in their internal sphere, but only if patient and analyst can tolerate and understand these three levels of intrapsychic experience.