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Hope

A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States

Hope
  • Price: $120.00 $108.00
  • Hardback: 128 pages
  • Also available in Paperback and e-Book
  • Published: December 1996
  • ISBN: 978-0-415-12176-7
  • Publisher: Routledge

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Series: New Library of Psychoanalysis.

In the well known myth of Pandora, hope was the last and most need gift at the bottom of a box of myriad misfortunes let loose on an unsuspecting world. For most human beings hope is a positive benefit. Anna Potamianou shows how in the 'borderline' patient hope can become a perverted and omnipotent means of denying reality. Indeed, in such individuals any state of mind or feeling can take on the status of an object, which is then used as a barrier against their fear of change.

The psychic economy and dynamics of borderline states are not yet well understood and this book makes an important contribution to the clinical debate.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Part I: Hope as a Binding Cathexis. As Exemplified in the Pandora Myth. As Exemplified in a Patient's Progress. Part II: Clinical and Metapsychological Background. On Cathexes. Delimiting Cathexes and Cathexes of Limits. Cathexes and Decathexes in Borderline States. Part III: Hope. Dynamic and Economic Aspects. One Day… It'll All Be Better Tomorrow. Part IV: Hopeful Waiting in Borderline States. Raising of Shields. A Token of Resistance. Safeguarding Masochism. A Cathexis that Becomes an Object. Part V: Even God Needs a Mother. De-formation, De-shaping, Dis-sociation. Tracing A Path. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index.

Reviews

"Theoretically interesting and clinically helpful. The author vividly conveys the borderline patient's world of chaos and unthinkable threats." - Journal of the British Association for Psychotherapists