The literature on “borderline” phenomena is broad and diverse.  A full appreciation of the multiple contributions of analysts who have worked since the first third of the last century would require many sessions and years of clinical experience.  My intention in designing this course is to promote the development of conceptual tools to be used to understand and help those patients who, either initially or after a period of analysis or psychodynamic therapy, find it difficult to make use of classical models of treatment.  Efforts to treat such patients have stimulated the advancement of theory and child development observation.  In this survey course I hope to provide a framework upon which one will be able to “hang” and organize the material that you will hopefully continuing to learn in more depth over the years to come.  Additionally, this course will introduce the student to some of the influential clinicians who have contributed to this literature.

Resistance, transference, and countertransference constitute the primary arenas of psychoanalytic work throughout the duration of treatment. This course will be broken down into three interconnected sections to allow us to spend time examining the literature on resistance in general, initially seen by Freud as onlya disruption to treatment, and then moving on to the particularity of transference and countertransference. The course will explore aspects of positive and negative forms of transference, erotic transference, and the more expansive notion of enactments, principally theorized by Kleinians and “modern” Freudians. How a patient’s transference and the analyst’s  countertransference can be used to understand the mind of the patient will be of utmost importance in our discussions.  Readings will cover a broad spectrum of analytic thinkers from various perspectives.

In this class, we will explore psychoanalytic practice and theory as these relate to psychosis.  We will undertake our survey from a broad theoretical perspective that will include Freud’s work on the topic as well as object relational and Lacanian theory.  In addition, we will consider broader historical and social perspectives on the phenomenon of psychosis, e.g., as exemplified in the work of Michel Foucault.  The final session of the class will be devoted to a discussion of a published case of psychosis to which we will apply our researches.