Losing & Fusing [Hardcover]

Roger A. Lewin (Author), Clarence Schulz (Author), Angelika Robertson (Photographer)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0876684908 | ISBN-13: 978-0876684900 | Publication Date: July 1977

Drs. Lewin and Schulz present a therapeutic approach to the borderline syndromes, which they view as disorders of affective instability. The borderline patient is in constant struggle with two threats to the integrity of the self. For fear of losing the other, the borderline patient needs to cling, but the clinging brings on the danger of getting too close and fusing with the other, thus losing the self. The other is both essential and toxic, in equal measures a promise and a threat. Borderline patients have a difficult time coping with losing and fusing dangers because of constricted relations to their inner experiences. Any step forward seems too much like a step back into early developmental chaos. Negativism, rigidity, concreteness, and all-or-none thinking are used to try to provide a modicum of security. Using clinical examples drawn from extended and intensive treatments, both inpatient and outpatient, Drs. Lewin and Schulz show the claims of conflicting feelings on borderline patients, who are struggling to retain enough sense of inner coherence and stability to go on functioning. Holding is crucial to any growth in the borderline self. The authors use detailed clinical examples to show how holding helps borderline patients become more capable of managing the losing and fusing dangers. Just as borderline patients struggle with the losing and fusing dangers, so too must therapists struggle with finding ways to be neither too close nor too aloof. Lewin and Schulz describe how the therapists' active and involved use of themselves is carried out in the treatment of borderline patients. To help the patients make sense of their own affective experiences, therapists need to monitortheir countertransference, which oscillates between too involved and too aloof. The authors discuss such topics as borderline emptiness, loneliness, and chronic suicidality. Their clinical examples touch the whole range of borderline symptomatology, including cutting, burning, eatin

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson (July 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876684908
• ISBN-13: 978-0876684900
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,581,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best texts written about B.P.D., June 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Losing & Fusing (Hardcover)

This is one of the most useful books written about bordeline personality disorder. The authors' humanistic approach to treating this severe personality disorder is commandable. This book describes in details the problems and difficulties that faces the patient in his/her daily life: "The aloness versus losing the self in fusion, the misuse of trasitional objects, the concreteness of mental functioning and much more...It also demonstrates the importance of Winnicott's holding notion to the patient's growth. And how holding renders the losing and fusing dangers more manageable". Not only that the authors demonstrate a great deal of understanding. But, they also assert that while comparisons and contrasts are for the sake of the client, a clinician should not lose sight of the uniqueness of each patient. This is a must read for the professional working with seriously disturbed patients.