Discussion of Berta Bornstein's "The Analysis of a Phobic Child"

Abstract

Bornstein's paper is a true psychoanalytic study of a child, if ever there was one. The fine tracing and discussion of the technical detail, together with the clarity and exposition of the theoretical underpinning make it a truly deep and thorough study and a model for those of us doing this work and trying to understand what indeed we do and why. I should say that although I have read the writings of the (then) Hampstead Clinic's borderline workshop (Kut Rosenfeld and Sprince, 1965), I had not read this outstanding paper by Berta Bornstein, and I wish I had done so long ago. I shall begin with some comments about psychoanalytic theory and then go on to discuss Bornstein's abundant and fascinating analyses of technique. I shall conclude with some observations on the child's psychopathology.