Losing and Fusing: Borderline Transitional Object and Self Relations (Roger Lewin and Clarence Schulz, 1992)
The borderline patient is in constant struggle with two threats to the integrity of the self.
For fear of losing the other, the borderline patient needs to cling, but the clinging brings on the danger of getting too close and fusing with the other, thus losing the self.
The other is both essential and toxic, in equal measures a promise and a threat. (...) Negativism, rigidity, concreteness, and all-or-none thinking are used to try to provide a modicum of security.
Using clinical examples drawn from extended and intensive treatments, both inpatient and outpatient, Drs. Lewin and Schulz show the claims of conflicting feelings on borderline patients, who are struggling to retain enough sense of inner coherence and stability to go on functioning.”