ABSTRACT
The establishment of an international group of psychoanalysts to consider the nature of and psychoanalytic treatment of borderline personality disorders presents a window into the problems of clinical–conceptual research in psychoanalysis. The discussions exploring various aspects of psychoanalytic experience and problems in treating borderline patients were rich, stimulating, and illuminating for clinicians. This chapter presents some reflections on the issues and problems involved in non-neurotic” patients. Psychoanalytic treatment requires the recognition of psychoanalytic parameters, conceptions, and features that are relevant to issues of treatability and analysability. In contrast to the psychiatric diagnosis based on combinations of characteristics and traits, therefore, the psychoanalytic diagnosis involves utilizing description to formulate features of psychic structure. The idea of psychoanalytic consideration of particular features of mental function is also related to differences of opinion about the need for a distinction between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
