ABSTRACT
The customary practice of presenting the clinical picture first has been reversed (1) to emphasize the thrust of the entire book; namely, that the role of separation-individuation is the key to understanding the adolescent Borderline Syndrome, and (2) to assist the reader to “read between the lines” of the clinical picture—presented in the next chapter. Neither the abandonment depression nor the narcissistic oral fixation—the two diagnostic hallmarks of the Borderline Syndrome—spring readily to the examiner’s view. The former is concealed by the patient’s defense mechanisms (splitting, denial, etc.), which mask his feelings of abandonment and the latter is concealed by his chronologic age, which belies the infantile state of his character.
