Emptiness, borderline personality
“…borderline personality, for instance, what is most lacking is the synthetic or integrative capacity of the ego to consolidate and maintain multiple, conflicting self/object representations. The relationship of the self with internalized object relationships is distorted by the defense of splitting, in which all good and all bad representations of the same person cannot be integrated. Similarly, splitting can persist between the grandiose, idealized self/object and the “deflated, debased” self/object (Lichtenberg,1975), and the ideal ego may remain fused with primitive all-good object representations, rather than separating off into the superego. The mindfulness practices actually strengthen the synthetic capacities of the ego (Epstein, 1988) by training the observing ego to attend to whatever arises without clinging or condemnation, thus allowing conflicting images to present themselves just as they are. So mindfulness practices can actually be very helpful in decreasing the pathologized emptiness of the borderline personality. However, if the insight practices into the emptiness of the ideal ego are attempted prematurely, there are real risks of the loss of the good self-images with which it may be fused, with the preservation and exacerbation of the all-bad, destructive images provoking the borderline’s characteristic defensive flight into depersonalization or identity loss.”
— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.
