You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The recent psychoanalytic literature (e.g., Bach, 1977; Giovacchini, 1975; Guntrip, 1969; Kernberg, 1975a; Kohut, 1971; Mahler, 1971; Modell, 1963, 1975, 1976; Settlage, 1977; and Volkan, 1976, to name just a few contributions) has been filled with many attempts to understand the pathology and treatment of patients with borderline, narcissistic, and other primitive personality disorders (e.g., schizoid, paranoid, “as if,” “false self,” and certain impulsive, masochistic, and addictive personalities). The differing terminologies or frames of reference which are used in these studies tend to obscure the similarities among their various approaches to the conditions described. The present study, which comes from the direct psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic clinical observation of patients suffering from various kinds of primitive personality disorders, will attempt to redirect attention to the broad similarities that exist within this seemingly heterogeneous group of disturbances by shifting the focus of observation to a particular quality and functional use of objects and/or their intrapsychic representations, which I have termed (after Semrad, quoted by Buie, 1972) “the sustaining object relationship.” From this perspective, many of the