Hope : A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States (The New Library of Psychoanalysis)

In the well known myth of Pandora, hope was the last and most need gift at the bottom of a box of myriad misfortunes let loose on an unsuspecting world. For most human beings hope is a positive benefit. Anna Potamianou shows how in the 'borderline' patient hope can become a perverted and omnipotent means of denying reality. Indeed, in such individuals any state of mind or feeling can take on the status of an object, which is then used as a barrier against their fear of change. The psychic economy and dynamics of borderline states are not yet well understood and this book makes an important contribution to the clinical debate.