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For the borderline, the setting and the analyst do not represent the mother—they are the mother.
Psychologically the infant takes from a breast that is part of the infant, and the mother gives milk to an infant that is part of herself.
On the borderline concept:
If we limit ourselves to the clinical data, we will find large areas of common experience. Concerning technique it is probable that we will disagree. If we speak about theory it is almost certain that we will part ways. In short we can share our perceptions but not our conceptions perhaps because we nurture different preconceptions.
The present case study intends to focus on countertransferential difficulties experienced by the analyst in response to primitive defense mechanisms of a borderline patient which threaten to bring analysis to a standstill. Inhibited creativity and aliveness, as well as unproductive countertransferential reactions on the part of the analyst, such as drowsiness, disinterest, irritability, and outright anger, are examined as emotional responses to the patient's unending and intense need to “freeze” the analyst as the object of his transference and to disavow him in his analytic function and in his capacity to analyze. The patient's defensive needs with the consequent inhibitory effects