Fantasy or Structural Defect? The Borderline Dilemma as Viewed From Analysis of an Experience of Nonhumanness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8335653 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Melvin Singer (Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital 111 North 49th Street Philadelphia, PA 19139, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 31-59 |
| Publication date | 1988-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/000306518803600102 |
| PMID | 3361067 |
| OpenAlex | W2094975841 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 17 |
The experience of nonhumanness, a crucial aspect of the phenomenal self of borderline states, is studied in two cases to test assumptions concerning the application of the classic ego-psychological or object-relations and self-psychological models. Are these experiences to be seen as fantasy and treated as manifest content, with dynamically active unconscious conflict and meaning, requiring interpretation, or as a developmental arrest in which structural disturbances are ameliorated through clarifying and empathic interventions? The first case is of a patient with a neurotic depression and hysterical and obsessional character traits, treated in a classic psychoanalysis. Even though dyadic oral and anal fantasies were strongly in evidence, the ego was well integrated. The second case is of a severe borderline patient who showed. depressive panic and agoraphobia. Her major ego disturbances, poorly integrated and differentiated self- and object representations, and primitive defenses prevented effective psychoanalytically oriented treatment. Interventions were used to consolidate self-representations, internalize tension-regulating structures, promote adaptive ego functions and reality testing. These clarifications were necessary to move the patient to where she could tolerate facing unconscious dynamic conflicts. Only at that point could repression be lifted, memory emerge, and interpretation be utilized
Art · Dilemma · Epistemology · Fantasy · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment
The Self and the Object World
The Predisposition to Anxiety
The New Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Revisionism
Depressive Affect, Anxiety, and Psychic Conflict in the Phallic-Oedipal Phase
Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety
The Nature of Conversion
"The Holding Environment" And The Therapeutic Action Of Psychoanalysis
Borderline Personality Organization
A Psychoanalytic Classification of Character Pathology
Rapprochement
Psychoanalytic theory of the neuroses
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2025 (32) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |