The Edge of Experience

This book deals with problems related to the analysis and treatment of borderline and psychosomatic patients. It demonstrates how psychoanalytic practice has had to accomodate the range of "borderline syndromes" and produce new models of theory and treatment.

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Traditionally, the development of psychoanalysis has been based on the study of 'neurotic' patients, for the most part displaying classic symptoms of hysteria, obsessive-compulsion and depression. However, during the last three or four decades, there has been a notable shift in the pattern of patients seeking psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The Edge of Experience, drawn from papers presented at the First European Conference on Psychotherapy held in Athens in 1997, demonstrates how psychoanalytic practice has had to accomodate the range of "borderline syndromes" - traumatisation, narcissism, and psychosomatic symptoms among others - and produce new models of theory and treatment.