ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the borderline as a concept. He restates some of the models used by the major contributors to our present knowledge of borderline pathology. Sigmund Freud does not propose a category of borderline patients, but he stresses the opposition between the obligations of abstract conceptualization and clinical reality. Borderline states, according to O. Kernberg, are characterized by: non-specific manifestations of ego weakness, a shift toward primary-process thinking, and specific defensive operations, which he views from the vantage point of internalized object relations. M. Milner has outstandingly illustrated the modifications required for analytic work with borderline patients. Her contributions to the dynamics of symbolism and her criticism of the conceptualization of primary process as a lower form of psychic activity constitute the basis of a better understanding of primary-process thinking in borderline disorders.
