Over twenty years ago James F. Masterson and his close associates developed a training programme for inexperienced psychodynamically oriented psychotherapists, teaching them how to treat borderline personality disorders. This training programme is now known as the Masterson Institute. Over time, the group has gradually expanded and matured. The theoretical orientation of the group has been towards developmental, self- and object-relations concepts, often with a focus on the separation-individuation phase of development as it expresses itself in the transference and countertransference. The teaching has been consistent and systematic.

Following Masterson & Rinsley's paper on ‘The borderline syndrome’ (1975, Int. J. Psychoanal., 56: 163-177) Masterson produced four more books on psychotherapeutic technique which dealt with transference and countertransference issues manifested in treatment with narcissistic and borderline patients (1972, 1976, 1981, 1983). He has also co-edited with Ralph