Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION: Dr. Max Stern expressed the view that the role of preoedipal trauma in the etiology of borderline states was not sufficiently emphasized. Dr. Bernard Brodsky raised questions concerning possible qualitative differences in transference and defenses in borderline patients and asked whether evidence of preoedipal traumata might not be more difficult to discern rather than being of less importance in these patients. Various panelists offered responses which acknowledged the similarity to psychotic phenomena while stressing the transient nature of many of the findings noted. In addition, the regressive nature of the clinical features and indications that gradations of disturbance were involved were also cited. Dr. Willick, responding to Dr. Charles McGann's question about countertransference problems, said that in the analysis of borderline persons, analysts experience a greater degree of confusion, helplessness, and hopelessness than with neurotic patients. Dr. Leo Stone commented on the Study Group's problems in understanding the concept of "projective identification" and cited as an amplification Bowlby's pointing out that a person in mourning who is warding off depressive affects will often find a lonely, forlorn person who then becomes the object of attention. In responding to Dr. David Milrod's question about early object relations and "splitting," Dr. Willick and Dr. Michael Porder noted that the Group found the concept of "splitting" unnecessary even in cases which