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In the clinical case described (Carla) it is easy to recognize many of the elements which, according to the current psychiatric nosography, constitute the borderline personality disorder (DSM 5). In accordance with a descriptively and categorically oriented psychiatry, this diagnosis tells us something about Carla's disorder but nothing about Carla as a person, about her lived experiences and her way of dealing with (or taking a stand toward) those symptoms. What happens inside Carla's world, a world that in order to be seen needs to be observed through her own eyes and words? If a description in the first person is to be made accessible, one has first to pay attention to all of Carla's statements and focus on what she feels and expresses through her words, her behavior, and her ways of relating to the others (with particular attention to the therapeutic relationship). In order to recover its specific meaning, each of the symptoms described by clinical psychiatry must be rethought and repositioned on the basis of Carla as a person, with her history and her experiences. Only from this point a therapeutic plan can be developed. In order to clarify the elements from which one such plan can be developed, I will follow the same path followed by Carla during our sessions and focus on these three aspects: (1) the anger; (2) the feeling of emptiness, loneliness, inconsistency, and inauthenticity; and (3) the self-harming behaviors.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-29945-7_3

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