Hope: A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States is a short work whose tide summarizes what the author has to say, and, indeed, she does have something to say. Unlike many books in the analytic literature that employ new clinical data or new terms to restate familiar themes, this one actually offers a fresh concept, a different way of viewing hope. Potamianou believes that hope is not always a positive force, sustaining and propelling one through the travails of analysis, or life. She shows that for some people hope can be negative, providing “life support” that allows them, in effect to curl into fetal position and avoid living.

The author derives this concept from her analyses of borderline patients, but it also applies to work with regressive states in neurotics. Her thesis, that hope can be the sustainer of masochism and