Samples:

The Effect of Yerida (Emigration) on the Therapeutic Relationship Between Israeli Psychotherapist and Patient

ABSTRACT: Combining object relations theory and case material, this paper describes the impact of cultural similarity on the initial alliance and the ongoing transference between an Israeli psychotherapist and her Israeli patient, both emigrants to Los Angeles . The trauma of Yerida (emigration) and its intrapsychic links to maternal-infant rapprochement are also explored.

 

THE BORDERLINE PATIENT: THEORETICAL
AND TREATMENT CONSIDERATIONS
FROM A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH

ABSTRACT: In recent years, there has been growing awareness and concern about the number of patients who do not fit the standard diagnostic criteria for neurosis or psychosis. As the state of knowledge about borderline personality disorders has grown, its enlarging literature has become filled with metapsychological abstractions which attempt to clarify subtle and complex data. In general, research on borderline phenomena differentiates this syndrome from other diagnostic groups according to its special characteristics of transference and counter transference, difficulties in treatment, patients' problems in intimate relationships, and patients' uses of primitive defense mechanisms including splitting and protective identification.

This paper will explore a particular theoretical perspective on the borderline phenomenon, as well as a specific treatment modality, both developed by James Masterson, M.D. It will also discuss major developmental issues which contribute to the difficulties experienced by the borderline patient population, including issues of early mother-child interaction, arrests in the rapprochement stage, and the failure of empathetic responses. Finally, the author will present a case to illustrate how the use of a developmental approach can facilitate treatment.