Leon Wurmser explains the last part of the title of his interesting book by noting that Freud and the early analysts treated many severe cases, which they referred to simply as severe neuroses. Only later did the term borderline come to be attached to these patients, a title that Wurmser thinks has acquired a too pejorative connotation, and stresses too strongly that these patients are different from milder neurotics. He sees these disturbances as being along a continuum, with more severe traumatization and resultant conflict leading to the picture of the severe neuroses.

Wurmser is concerned about the negative effect of the label borderline, especially since he sees the key in the treatment of such patients to be an attitude of