Whose borderline is it? Treating borderline personality
Gil, T.E.
Harefuah 148(3): 165-168; 211, 210
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 19485274 Document Number: 630477
Following previous articles on possible etiologies and context of diagnosing borderline personality, this article discusses treatment for such cases, utilizing a case study of a woman diagnosed as borderline, who received ambulatory psychotherapy and psychiatric hospitalization. In the past, this patient experienced sexual abuse by members of her family. Notwithstanding her praiseworthy efforts to conduct a normal life, her past haunted her, both mentally and realistically. 'Borderline' can be envisioned not only as an intrapsychic struggle of aggressive impulses of a destructive quality. It can also be understood as acting out frustration that emanates from lack of empathy from the relevant milieu, and as an unremitting coping with present-life revival of the past traumata. We conclude that an empathic understanding of such considerations is crucial for the success of treatment of borderline personality.