ABSTRACT
I found myself in a quandary, once again, in thinking of cases to include in this chapter. Alistair, the boy I discuss, could have easily been included in the chapter on hyperactivity. Equally, children presented in other chapters, such as Pilar in the chapter on hyperactivity or Craig in the chapter on parental guidance, could be diagnosed as borderline children. The difficulty in categorizing borderline children is shared amongst clinicians, who find that many features of the borderline group are similar to those of a range of psychological disorders in childhood. Lubbe writes that the current profile of borderline children is “loaded down as it is with descriptions of conduct disturbance, attention deficit, impulsivity and emotional disregulation” (Lubbe, 2000, p. 6). In his review of the literature on borderline personality disorders, he quotes authors who have outlined some diagnostic features in this type of childhood disorder. He mentions a “rapid shift between psychotic-like and neurotic levels of reality testing; a lack of `signal anxiety’ (Freud, 1926) and a proneness to states of panic dominated by overwhelming concern of body dissolution, annihilation and abandonment” (Lubbe, 1442000, p. 41). We also find idiosyncratic thinking and disruption of thought processes, impairment in relationships, and a difficulty in distinguishing self from others. There is a lack of impulse control, of the capacity to modulate destructive tendencies and to contain intense feelings. These characteristics are generally thought to define borderline personality in children.
