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This is the most rewarding book that I have read for a long time. It presents material emerging from six meetings of a group of eight psychoanalysts from different geographical and conceptual backgrounds in which discussions about the nature of borderline pathology, and about the psychoanalytic approach to borderline patients, took place. The group, with members from England, France, Argentina and the United
States, was initiated and led by André Green, and the book presents reflections about the nature and process of the group as well as their thoughts about the subject of their meetings. The reader will find awealth of up-to-date clinical expertise and clear thinking on the subjects of borderline pathology, psychoanalytic work with borderline patients, transference and countertransference in borderline states, the analyst's internal work, the ‘state of the art’ of contemporary psychoanalysis, and psychoanalytic research. These subjects emerge within a consistently honest and reflective approach to the significant differences between those in the group, some of whom have contributed more than one chapter to the book.
The differences emerged in thinking about every aspect of the investigation. Fernando Urribarri, a psychoanalyst from Argentina, in his chapter ‘The Analyst's Psychic Work’ suggests that the work of the group was ‘profoundly contemporary’. He differentiates group members along the lines of two different contemporary orientations within the field of psychoanalysis. The first seeks to develop a new model (himself, André Green, Jean-Claude Rolland, Gregorio Kohon), and the second seeks to update variants of post-Freudian models (Elizabeth Bott Spillius, Otto Kernberg, William Grossman and Jaime Lutenberg). There was also a significant difference identified between psychiatric and psychoanalytic approaches to the subjects being considered, and further differences concerning the compatibility-or otherwise-of the two approaches. Kernberg's chapter ‘Transfer