Interpretation in the Treatment of Borderline Pathology

Abstract

After integrating and elaborating on the corresponding definitions of interpretation in major standing psychoanalytic dictionaries, I highlight the differences between the interpretative process and its objectives for patients with neurotic personality organization and those with severe personality disorders. To illustrate the interpretative process within the Transference Focused Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for patients with borderline personality organization, the clinical vignette, depicting the interpretation of projective mechanisms as part of interpretation of primitive object relations activated in transference, is presented verbatim.

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Notes on contributors

Otto F. Kernberg

Otto F. Kernberg, M.D., is Director, Personality Disorders Institute, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division; Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University; and Training and Supervising Analyst, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.