ABSTRACT
Otto Kernberg has made major contributions to topics as diverse as differential diagnosis, the development of self and object representations, the psychology and psychopathology of organizations, and psychoanalytic technique. This chapter concentrates on the work for which Kernberg is best known: his ideas on the dynamics and treatment of what has come to be called the "borderline personality organization". Kernberg's account of the dynamics of the borderline personality relies heavily on a model of the development of self and object representations derived from the work of Mahler, Jacobson, and Klein. According to this view, the newborn (normal autistic) baby has no concept of self and other. As representations are formed, they are classified as either "good" or "bad", as Klein suggested. According to Kernberg's model, the autistic child has failed to establish an image of itself and its mother fused in satisfaction—the intrapsychic correlate of symbiotic bonding.
