ABSTRACT

In the well known myth of Pandora, hope was the last and most need gift at the bottom of a box of myriad misfortunes let loose on an unsuspecting world. For most human beings hope is a positive benefit. Anna Potamianou shows how in the 'borderline' patient hope can become a perverted and omnipotent means of denying reality. Indeed, in such individuals any state of mind or feeling can take on the status of an object, which is then used as a barrier against their fear of change.

The psychic economy and dynamics of borderline states are not yet well understood and this book makes an important contribution to the clinical debate.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|11 pages

Hope as a binding cathexis

chapter 2|32 pages

Clinical and metapsychological background

chapter 3|10 pages

Hope

chapter 4|16 pages

Hopeful waiting in borderline states

chapter 5|24 pages

Even God needs a mother