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Severe borderlines and self psychology

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Abstract

This paper will discuss work with a woman diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder because of classic symptoms of intense unstable affect, recurrent suicidality, self-mutilation, and primitive defensive organization. Once a selfobject transference tie was established, the borderline symptoms remitted. Discussion of this case will focus on the clinical application of concepts from the field of psychoanalytic self psychology, particularly the concepts of self-object functions and intersubjectivity, in work with patients diagnosed as borderline.

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Dublin, P. Severe borderlines and self psychology. Clin Soc Work J 20, 285–294 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00754640

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