Management of Countertransference with Borderline Patients

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., is Professor and Director of the Baylor Psychiatry Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute in Houston, Texas. He was previously Director of the Menninger Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. Dr. Gabbard is the author or editor of sixteen books and currently is joint Editor-in-Chief and Editor for North America of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. His numerous awards include the 2000 Mary Sigourney Award for outstanding contributions to psychoanalysis.Sallye M. Wilkinson, Ph.D., is Staff Psychologist and Assistant Unit Director in the Children's Division of The Menninger Clinic and a candidate in the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis.

• Introduction. Overview of countertransference with borderline patients. Establishment of optimal distance. On victims, rescuers, and abusers. On holding, containment, and thinking one's own thoughts. Reactions to rage and hatred. Sexual feelings and gender issues. Use of therapist self-disclosure. Splitting. Supervision and consultation. Therapeutic aspects of managing countertransference. Index.

There have been many fine books on the borderline personality, but this is the first work that intelligently addresses the effect of borderline patients on the psychotherapist or psychoanalyst who works with them. It is a profoundly informative, vivid, and compelling read, because the authors have skillfully inserted riveting clinical vignettes that evoke the presence of the personality they address, thereby establishing a rather remarkable triangular drama: this extraordinary patient, contemporary psychoanalytic theories on the borderline patient, and the clinician who must carry his patient and his own beset-upon self to psychic change and well-being.