The Object Relations of a Borderline Psychotic Child and Their Connection with His Inability to Learn

Working for three years with Tim, a borderline child, gave me insight into his negative and often terrifying view of object relationships which throws light on the almost total inability to learn which is often seen in such children. I propose to show how he communicated his difficulties, at first in primitive materials only, without speech, and later in “dramatic” play and words.

Tim's failure to develop normally was first discovered in the routine medical examination prior to his admission to school at the age of five. It was impossible to test him because of his fearful and negative behaviour and he was referred to the Child Guidance Clinic and taken on for twice-weekly psychotherapy. In the early sessions he could not stay with me alone for long and each parent and his young adolescent sister spent part of a session with him in turn, giving me the opportunity to observe their handling of him.

Tim's mother had suffered a post puerperal depression after the birth of each of her children and was subsequently sterilised when he was three years old after the termination of her third pregnancy. It is possible that she made a physical attack on her son in the first few days of his life. He was looked after by his grandmother for several weeks and subsequently both parents played an equal part in his care. His mother tended to take a tense and defeatist view of Tim and to feel isolated with the problems, while remaining unable to accept fully all the social work help offered. Tim's father was an extremely rigid and unsophisticated man with a severe speech defect, who seemed quite bizarre until one got to know him. Both parents made some move in maturation over the years but remained basically very controlling with Tim which unfortunately meant that they could not happily accept his more spontaneous behaviour when he started, in the eyes of school and clinic, to improve.

The first time I saw Tim, he clung to his mother while she talked to the psychiatric social worker. I no