Differentiating the ego-personality and internal other in art psychotherapy with patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

This paper was originally given as a presentation at the Cassel Hospital in London on 25 May 2005. The paper outlines internal dynamics particular to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and elaborates on Jung's ideas around the use of myth. The biblical story of Adam and Eve is described as an accurate constellation of behaviours and relationships that maps out the significant vulnerabilities in Borderline Personality Disorder. There are several extracts taken from art psychotherapy sessions that illustrate persuasions from an ‘internal other’ that disrupt the capacity for the patient to relate to the therapist.

Keywords:

• Art psychotherapy
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• myth
• Jung
• Adam and Eve
• internal other
• internal cohabitation

Notes

1 In Figure 2, I see the snake of persuasion as the shadow of God holding a position under the authority of that territory of consciousness; the ego-personality that exists in the presence of the snake but is not overwhelmed by it. In this instance, the figure appears to make use of and reveal their findings as an offering to the world in a benign way.

2 The All-Seeing Eye of God as it appears on the title page of Robert Fludd's 1621 treatise on theosophy and Kabbalah. The words ascending from the prophet, ‘In alarum tuarum umbra canam’ are a direct reference to a theme in the Rosicrucian Fama Fraternitatis, ‘Under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice’ (Ps. 63:7).