Enjeux et travail de frontière : approche métapsychologique des limites

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this article is to revisit the concept of border or frontier in the areas of psychopathology and psychoanalysis, moving beyond a nosographic focus on the borderline personality category. In a conceptual approach, we focus on a particular form of dividing line or boundary, the border or frontier. This notion makes it possible to go beyond a purely linear, bi-dimensional approach attached the notion of a dividing line in favour of a dynamic and processual approach. MethodThe notion of the frontier has been widely debated, and belongs to reflection on the spatial dimension of the psychic apparatus. Freud linked it to drives and to the self. P. Federn went on to explore the frontiers of the ego and their fluctuations, in particular, in schizophrenia and depersonalisation. Other concepts contribute to an understanding of the boundaries of the psychic apparatus – Freud's “protective shield”, the barriers envisaged by Bion, and for Didier Anzieu the sphere of autistic disorders and his “moi-peau”. ResultThe notion of the frontier confronts bi-dimensional and tri-dimensional space, demarcation lines, passing places, conflict zones, transformation zones, trophism and toxicity. It underlines the importance of the fact that it is not a mere line, but a genuine space, a psychic place under construction. This leads on to the notion of the challenges raised by frontiers and the way to work on them. The challenges relate to the delineation and the differentiation of inside and outside, and on the inside to the differentiation of the different psychic entities or spaces. Working on frontiers involves psychic transformation and confrontation or conflict with what is beyond self, body and language. The challenges of frontiers or borders lead to a delineation of what is internal and what is external, and to differentiations: good inside, bad outside, guaranteeing protection. This is taken up again in work on the frontier: the frontier defines containers, and also contributes to the integration of content. In its dynamics, work on borders and frontiers contributes to converting excitation, the paradigmatic value of which is maintained: a crossing of borders that leads to change. Work on frontiers is particularly useful for adolescents, but its usefulness is lifelong, and it can favour or hamper processes of change; it can become rigid and sclerotic, which restricts the psychic dynamic and contributes to generating symptoms. ConclusionWhen dividing lines are envisaged as frontiers, it becomes possible to distinguish psychic processes that are underway throughout life in the delineation and transformation of the psychic apparatus. If we pay attention to work on frontiers and their transforming function, and note where obstacles are encountered, we can contribute to a dynamic approach to psychic functioning, working on a continuum from the normal to the pathological. The frontier, as a particular form of dividing line, provides a reappraisal of the processes underpinning contemporary expressions of psychic suffering, and gives impetus to the nosographic approach.