ABSTRACT
The therapeutic alliance, vital to successful psychotherapy of the borderline and narcissistic disorders, is achieved by two different therapeutic interventions. The advantage of viewing this issue from this theoretical approach is that it provides an architecture of the patient’s inner emotional life, including self- and object-representations together with their linking affects and ego defense mechanisms and functions. This allows the therapist to identify and understand the ebb and flow of the patient’s emotions—what emotional state is on center stage and must be dealt with and how to deal with it. Also, it provides a tool for evaluating the effects of the interventions.
