Hope

In the well known myth of Pandora, hope was the last and most need gift at the bottom of a box of myriad misfortunes let loose on an unsuspecting world. For most human beings hope is a positive benefit. Anna Potamianou shows how in the 'borderline' patient hope can become a perverted and omnipotent means of denying reality. Indeed, in such individuals any state of mind or feeling can take on the status of an object, which is then used as a barrier against their fear of change. The psychic economy and dynamics of borderline states are not yet well understood and this book makes an important contribution to the clinical debate.

Anna Potamianou is a Training Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society and member of the Greek Study Group. She teaches at Pantios University, Greece, and is in private practice.

Introduction. Part I: Hope as a Binding Cathexis. As Exemplified in the Pandora Myth. As Exemplified in a Patient's Progress. Part II: Clinical and Metapsychological Background. On Cathexes. Delimiting Cathexes and Cathexes of Limits. Cathexes and Decathexes in Borderline States. Part III: Hope. Dynamic and Economic Aspects. One Day... It'll All Be Better Tomorrow. Part IV: Hopeful Waiting in Borderline States. Raising of Shields. A Token of Resistance. Safeguarding Masochism. A Cathexis that Becomes an Object. Part V: Even God Needs a Mother. De-formation, De-shaping, Dis-sociation. Tracing A Path. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index.