ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the significance of this form of destructive attack in the production of some symptoms met with in borderline psychosis. It discusses phantasied attacks on the breast as the prototype of all attacks on objects that serve as a link, and projective identification as the mechanism employed by the psyche to dispose of the ego fragments produced by its destructiveness. Observation of the patient's disposition to attack the link between two objects is simplified because the analyst has to establish a link with the patient and does this by verbal communication and his equipment of psychoanalytic experience. Attacks on the link, therefore, are synonymous with attacks on the analyst's, and originally the mother’s, peace of mind. On some occasions the destructive attacks on the link between patient and environment, or between different aspects of the patient's personality, have their origin in the patient.
