On the process of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the borderline depressive patient

Abstract A certain subgroup of borderline patients often presents depressive symptomatology (either chronic or periodic) and an underlying borderline personality organization. In this article, the effort is directed at elucidating the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic process of these borderline depressives by presenting clinical fragments of several psychotherapeutic cases. The process goes through periods of activation of the patient's depressive or primitive mental functioning, which also reflects on the therapist's countertransference. The capacity of the therapist to tolerate and elaborate on his patient's projections, facilitates the development of the therapist-patient communication and plays a significant role in the therapeutic outcome itself.