ABSTRACT
Abel Fainstein received his MD from the Buenos Aires University. He specialised in psychiatry. He received a Master in Psychoanalysis degree from the Universidad del Salvador-APA. Dr Fainstein is a full member, training analyst, and past president at the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association. From the moment Abel Fainstein entered the Prague Congress meeting space, his youthful enthusiasm and clear-eyed thinking were contagious. Dr Fainstein spoke about the need to stay in touch with some of his borderline patients when he is away from his practice for a time. The toddler living in an abusive household settles in on a strategy for negotiating that situation, which may involve desperate pathetic clinging or rigid self-sufficiency, to cite two extreme responses, and this then becomes a way of negotiating life. The idea that one could step outside the transference is wishful thinking, like imagining that one could actually be somebody else.
