Modifications to the Technique of Analysis of BPD Adolescents

In this article I discuss certain modifications in technique that I applied working with borderline adolescents that enabled me to preserve the therapeutic bond and which, in my opinion, allowed me to obtain successful results. The differences with classical analysis are clear cut and concern, for example, the setting, the frequency of sessions, the nature of the transference, and modes of interpretation. It is important to keep our dialogue with the adolescent alive and avoid long silences that can be destructive. Part of the analyst’s work, in fact, consists in loaning his/her “images” (the product of his/her mind or imagination) to the concreteness of the patient. In the session these images seize something that is already present in the adolescent’s narrative as a creative hint to be developed that the analyst sees in the dialogue and deposits as a seed in his/her mind and which gives rise to a fruit produced by the analytical couple.