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Living in the Borderland introduces and explores not only the ‘Borderland’ but also the ‘borderland personality’. The Borderland is that space in the mind where the rational, the ‘transrational’, and nature meet and are integrated. Bernstein explains: ‘By transrational reality I mean objective, non-personal, non-rational phenomena occurring in the natural universe, information and experience that does not readily fit into standard cause and effect logical structure’ (p. xv). The borderland personality is one who is able to experience and integrate (with the help of objective, non-reductive, and non-pathologizing listening) these phenomena. ‘these are the kinds of experiences that typically are labeled and dismissed as superstition, irrational, and, in the extreme, abnormalor crazy’ (pp. xv–xvi). Anexample ofthis wouldbe aperson's authentic religious experience being judged abnormal, or maybe crazy, by his/her family or community.
The major theme of this book deals with Bernstein's belief that there are an ‘increasing number of people who have transrational experiences that are real —not real-seeming, not ‘as if’ experiences, but real’ (p. xvi). My understanding of his use of ‘real’ is that primary experience before language and judgment have gone to work to make sense of the experience. For Bernstein, these real experiences help transform the trauma of being part of the Western collective consciousness that is one-sided and disconnected from nature. This transformation is assistedby objective listening and with new psychological tools: Navajo rituals, traditions, and the witnessing of the community of what could be.
Bernstein divides his book into three parts. Part I is a theoretical formulation for the emergence of the borderland reality and personality. Part II is a focus on how borderland dynamics are manifested in the clinical setting. He also spells out what he thinks are the psychotherapeutic implications of this phenomenon. Part III continues Part II with the i