U. Sachsse, THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF THE BORDERLINE PERS ONALITY-DISORDER AS A SEQUEL TO TRAUMA - AN OUTLINE (OR A PROPOSAL), Forum der Psychoanalyse, 11(1), 1995, pp. 50-61
The clinical and empirical results presented by various authors within
the last ten years have supported the conjecture that very many borde
rline patients, especially women, have suffered from real traumata: de
privation, loss of a parent, physical and sexual abuse and incest. The
se traumata temporarily destroy their ego functions and the ''good'' o
bject associated with them. Through personification, the trauma can be
defined as only a ''bad'' object or can be further processed by fanta
sy, games and dreams. The strictly ''good'' object, formed as a respon
se to the trauma, contains the restructured, fantasy-like, paradisiaca
l time prior to the trauma and the hope for a livable future. Deperson
alization can be induced as a splitting of the physical experience dur
ing abuse, derealization as a metamorphosis of the traumatic experienc
e into fantasy. The ability to repress can be hindered or destroyed, t
hereby preventing traumata from becoming psychological ''abscesses''.
Levels of fearful recollections up to and including hypermnesia remain
as an ''open wound'' on the emotional surface, the defense or which u
tilizes [Inscenierung] acting out, self-mutilation or substance abuse.
All of the essential mechanisms and symptom formations of the borderl
ine personality disorder are therefore understandable as sequelae to t
rauma.