Law versus clinical treatment: the case of L.C

This paper defines certain conflicts between the clinical treatment process of borderline pathology in severely disturbed adolescents and the legal "patients rights" issues. It shows how these conflicts become part of the externalization of the internal splitting process in hospitalized borderline patients. It also demonstrates the sabotaging aspects of legal interventions in a treatment program that is structured for a locked inpatient unit. One case example is used to explicate these points.