E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Schiltz-Ludwig, Lony: When Aggression is disturbed ...
idealisation. He has maintained a black and white view of reality and
maintains a separation between the good and the bad aspects of himself and
others. His feeling of identity and his perception of others lack stability and
fluctuate from one moment to the other, according to the prevalent
experience, leading towards a fundamental emotional instability. This
condition is traditionally located between the psychosis and the neurosis
and is sometimes covered by pseudo-neurotical symptoms.
In a descriptive nosographical perspective, the concept of borderline
personality is included in the DSM IV among the personality disorders.
However, the borderline personality organisation is often mentioned in a
broader sense, reflecting the initial conception of Kernberg, as a lack of
definite structure, a fragile, precarious organisation underlying a large
number of fluctuating conduct disorders. In France, Bergeret 6 has described
this personality organisation for adults, but it can easily be transposed to
adolescence. In his developmental perspective, there are three possible
evolutions from borderline personality organisation: towards a psychotic
structure, towards a normal or neurotic organisation or towards character
pathology. In Germany, Dulz and Schneider 7 have a similar conception,
showing that under therapy there is a possible evolution from a low-level to
a high-level borderline personality and a change in surface symptoms.
Recently, clinicians of many countries have noticed an increasing number of
young people with a borderline personality organisation, resulting either in
violent behaviour or in overadaptation and a false self, covering a
stagnation of personal evolution and a blockade of pulsional and emotional
functioning and authentic desire.
In the manuals of psychopathology of adolescence, there is a gap concerning
the preliminary signs of personality disorders, except for the antisocial
personality. The chapters devoted to conduct disorders include only a small
6
BERGERET J., La personnalité normale et pathologique, (3e éd) Paris: 1996, 330 p.
7
DULZ B., SCHNEIDER A., Borderline Störungen. Theorie und Therapie, (2e éd) Stuttgart:
Schattauer, 1996, 186 p.
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