Suicidal patients' psychological attacks on the therapist.

In therapy, suicidal borderline patients often use the therapist as a "selfobject," an object that regulates the patient's narcissistic equilibrium. To demonstrate this concept, the author presents the case history of a young woman who created a "selfobject transference" by means of attacks on the therapist similar to those she herself had experienced in childhood. Her massive, hidden attacks were also troublesome to the therapists' own feeling of self-worth.