Becoming a constant object for the borderline patient

Strong evidence that individuals with borderline personality disorder have failed to achieve object constancy has led researchers to conclude that effective therapy requires the therapist to become a constant object for the patient. The authors suggest that to achieve this goal, the therapist must use time as a vehicle for change, make few interventions, and maintain attentive interest without offering interpretations or prescriptions for action. Although frustrating to the borderline patient, such restraint addresses the patient's problems of achieving gradations of feelings, of unease with separateness, and of the fear of abandonment.