On borderline phenomena

The author describes his struggle to resolve some theoretical and technical problems posed by borderline patients. For this he has made use of an ancient Indian myth of King Trishanku taken from Bhagwat Puran--the Hindu Book of Genesis. He has tried to demonstrate, step by step, how fruitfully this myth has helped him to understand such patients. Special emphasis has been laid on the language used by borderline patients. The contrary and apparently meaningless nature of this language is likened to the formulation of King Trishanku's unique desire, 'to go to heaven without actually dying'. The author then proceeds to show that this language is not quite as meaningless as it appears to be--that it is the result of a complicated system of projective identification devised by these patients to manipulate their objects in order to achieve their own omnipotent ends. Detailed clinical examples are given to describe the handling of the problems of appropriation, manipulation and consequent suspended state of such patients. Taken from three different stages of various analyses these examples show how a very slow and gradual change was brought about in the mental structures of the patients treated by the author.