PEP | Article - Discussion of Peter Fonagy et al.'s “The Developmental Roots of Borderline Personality Disorder in Early Attachment Relationships: A Theory and Some Evidence”

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I AM GREATLY HONORED TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS PETER Fonagy's paper. It is in some ways a daunting paper. An astonishing amount is put into a relatively short work that touches on borderline etiology, phenomenology, psychopathology, dynamics, and treatment, all with the backdrop of copious research into attachment behavior in these disorders. The very quantity of references and the immense scope of the paper make it an intimidating, even overwhelming paper, since it requires more than a bit of pluck to challenge a work that appears to be so closely tied to well designed and replicable research on attachment behavior. Another reason that the paper is daunting is that it appears to be at the vanguard in the psychoanalytic quest for scientific respectability. The paper locates itself at a point of immense sensitivity and of intense meaning for psychoanalysis today. It speaks to criticisms of the psychoanalytic community from without and from within about scientific respectability. It is an attempt at synthesis of psychoanalytic and