I have found that after i have presented on a topic such as we are considering today some members of the audience invariably ask, “What has this approach of long-term treatment for these patients to do with our limitation of 21 days of hospitalization?” My remarks have been dismissed as impractical and suited only to an ivory-tower treatment situation. There are, of course, several valid treatment approaches with borderline patients. These could include behavior modification, cognitive therapy, medications, brief psychotherapy, supportive therapy, analysis, environmental manipulation, and even antihospitalization, to list a few.

Aside from the benefit for the particular patient it is important that we learn more about normal and pathological development, treatment technique, and knowledge that may be applied more broadly to shed light on the increasing incidence of teenage suicide and homicide in our society. We need to know more about the