The Unquiet Attachment

Structure of Personality

According to empirical data, it results from the inability to separate during the separation-individuation stage (Mahler, 1975). The self is unable to unite and stays bound to the other. It is a diffuse identity that denotes a lack of a solid sense of self or others, according to Kernberg (1975).

Processing of the Personality

The borderline is primarily characterized according to the psychic economic features of splitting, projection, and projective identification. These defenses serve to help the borderline survive-exist as just how best to manage affective overstimulation and at the same time guard a very fragile self. Still trying to fight their wars over unresolved internal conflicts, intimacy can appear as a battleground, and others may be viewed in terms of either savior/persecutor (Bornstein et al., 2018).

Fractured Mirrors and the Search for Wholeness

Psychoanalytic Analysis of the Borderline Personality Disorder

Like all other disorders of the personality or even of identity, borderline personality disorder is seen in psychoanalytic theory as actually a much more profound disruption of the architecture of the self. According to object relations theory, a child’s capacity to integrate both good and negative object experiences is broken by early caregiving failures that are caused by inconsistency, neglect, and entanglement. The outcome was a personality structure characterized by disjointed internal representations and unstable ego boundaries (Kernberg, 1975; Mahler, 1975).

Personality Development and Therapeutic Change

Treatment consists of altering the reinforcement environment. Behavioral treatments such as contingency management and DBT apply consistent reinforcement to encourage emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. The caged bird now learns new songs—not by altering its nature, but by altering its environment.

References

Bornstein, R. F., Gold, S. H., & Heller, D. (2018). Introduction to personality: Toward an integrative science of the self. Sage Publications.

Clarkin, J. F., Yeomans, F. E., & Kernberg, O. F. (2006). Psychotherapy for borderline personality: Focusing on object relations. American Psychiatric Publishing.

Kernberg, O. F. (1975). Borderline conditions and pathological narcissism. Jason Aronson.

Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant: Symbiosis and individuation. Basic Books.