ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the experience of taking part in a small exploratory research group of psychoanalysts whose aim was to study countertransference in work with borderline patients. Gregorio discussed the history of the concept of borderline, which led to a complex discussion between himself, Otto, and André. Gregorio said he had found Otto’s distinction between borderline personality disorder (symptoms) and borderline personality organization very clarifying. He also talked about French views on borderlines, and Fernando, André, and Jean-Claude joined in. He went on to discuss the “frame”, the “setting” in British terminology, and something of the work of Rosenfeld with borderline and psychotic patients. Andre emphasized the strong transference and the need for basic trust in the patient. Then he talked about the tolerance of suffering and the origin of the madness, which he thought of as an identification by Gregorio’s patient with the ill part of the mother and of the father.
