Personalidade Borderline: dos limites do self aos limites do corpo

Abstract

Background: In a psychodynamic pers-pective, one of the essential aspects of borderline personality is the insufficient self integration, which often results in a poor relation with the body and self-destructive behaviours.Aims: We intend to approach self development in borderline personality, understand the importance of the body in its development, as well as the role of self-mutilating behaviour in the relationship between self and body.Methods: Non systematic literature review based on Otto Kernberg and Didier Anzieu theories.Results and Conclusions: On the one hand, we find that in borderline personality splitting remains the predominant defence mechanism, preventing proper differentia-tion between self and object, as well as the integration of good and bad aspects of self and object. Moreover, the concept of “skin-ego”, defined by Didier Anzieu, says that the tactile sensibility is an Ego and thought or-ganizing model and, in borderline personality, the development of this body envelope is severely compromised. Self-mutilation is, simultaneously, an attempt to re-establish the boundaries of self and a communication type open to intersubjectivity that, although contains a destructive aspect, enables self repair.