This paper distinguishes between the grammar of wishes in neurotic patients and the grammar of imperative needs in borderline patients. The treatment of a borderline psychotic boy 30 years ago was uninformed by subsequent developments in technique arising from the theory of projective identification as a communication rather than as an attack or a defense. Issues that need addressing in borderline patients, especially those who are children, include (a) developmental delay, (b) the distintion between defenses and overcomings in the paranoid position, (c) rectification fantasies of vengeance, and (d) rectification fantasies of justice and other moral imperatives.