Developmental formulation and psychotherapy of borderline adolescents

Treatment of the borderline adolescent requires a highly sophisticated, multimodal treatment formulation that is based on a developmental, psychodynamic formulation of the patient and family system. The therapeutic model chosen must fit the case as well as possible, but, of necessity, may change as the patient grows and develops. It is of utmost importance to understand the patient's process of growth and development and the utilization of each particular model of psychotherapy chosen. Therapeutic techniques should derive from the model(s) of treatment and should constantly be analyzed during the course of psychotherapy with these very difficult patients. The case example illustrates the treatment of a borderline personality patient who, in Goldstein and Jones's model, initially was in Group IV, the withdrawn and socially isolated group, but as therapy developed, fell into Group II in her defiance, disrespectful stance toward her mother, belligerance, and antagonism both in the family and in therapy. She progressively was able to relinquish her defensive stance of denial, projection, and splitting, and became more aware of her affect. As she progressed in therapy, her mood shifted from states of anger to states of depression and self-consciousness and her treatment was facilitated by use of pharmacotherapeutic agents and a very close-knit outpatient team. It is important to emphasize the value of a close-knit working outpatient team in the psychotherapy.