Dynamically oriented psychotherapy with borderline patients.

Abstract

This article outlines a basic framework and strategy for a dynamically oriented psychotherapy with borderline patients. Focus includes arrangements and guidelines for psychotherapy, neutrality, the stability of the therapeutic environment, the therapeutic alliance, transference, the countertransference, activity of the therapist, types of interventions, style of interventions, interventions regarding core difficulties, the conceptual framework of anxiety and defense, trends in the psychotherapy, and termination. A differentiation between analytically oriented psychotherapy and dynamically oriented psychotherapy is provided. For one group of borderline patients, a modified analytically oriented approach is utilized throughout the entire treatment. For a second group, there is a switch from analytically oriented psychotherapy to a dynamically oriented psychotherapy, after the therapeutic alliance has become reasonably stable. Two clinical vignettes are provided.