Acting out of separation conflicts in borderline pathology. An empirical case study.

The acting out of highly conflictual fantasies and feelings that develop around separations from significant others is a typical and challenging phenomenon for psychotherapists who treat borderline patients. The authors present a case study of a hospitalized 27-year-old woman with borderline pathology. Their account focuses on her experience and enactment of separation conflicts that emerged in psychotherapy (in dreams and transference) and in the inpatient milieu. To quantify and study the phenomena, the authors used an observational scheme and an acting-out scale.