ho is typically borderline, conceives of the child as literally an appendage, fostering and reinforcing dependency and concurrently withholding love and attention when separation is attempted. Thus, the child is rewarded for dependency and punished for normal object internalization and separation (p. 398). As a result, the child will take upon her or himself the qualities of the mother and integrate them into her or his functioning (Pervin, 1980, p. 53). Given the child's failure of individuation, she or he presents affective deficits resulting in the incomplete separation of self from others, as well as difficulty creating and sustaining "good" and "bad" representations. Gil (1988) reports that borderline disorder clients tend to perceive of the world in "black" and "white," rather than recognizing and accepting the pervasive "gray" areas of life. The manifestations of deindividuation and faulty "good"/"bad" representations results in the preclusion of the development of a healthy human being who is distinctly effectively separate from others; resultantly, she or he is incapable of healthy interrelations. This tends to result in contradictory emotional states in the consciousness that are accompanied by the internalized self- and object representations.
The Borderline Personality Disorder is frequently accompanied by many features of other personality disorders, such as Schizotypal, Histrionic, Narcissistic, and Antisocial Personality Disorders. There is typically persistent identity disturbance, which is manifested by an uncertainty about several life issues, including self-image, sexual orientation, long-term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers, and/or what values to adopt. Further, interpersonal relationships tend to be unstable and intense, and may be characterized by alternation of the extreme of overidealization and devaluation. There is also usually difficulty present for the toleration of being alone...