When we started to work as a group the term "borderline" was used roughly for those children who at the time of referral suffered from severe ego disturbances but whose behavior was not yet frankly psychotic—that is to say, they were not yet "over the border." We do not yet feel sure that successful treatment reversing the borderline process necessarily indicates that we may not have been handling a potentially psychotic person. It may well be that such a patient might without treatment have developed an overt psychosis, or he might have remained a borderline psychotic. Borderline psychotics

living in a benign environment may be spared a breakdown, while external stress usually exacerbates their condition.