The treatment of the borderline patient involves considerable activity and definite structure on the part of the therapist, directed mainly toward helping the patient utilize a realistic doctor-patient relationship. Borderline patients are seldom capable of tolerating the painful affect integral to the emergence of regressive transference reactions. Despite this and other limitations, many borderline patients are capable of maintaining a high degree of adaptation, provided the therapist remains available to them in a limited manner for an indefinite period.Abstract Teaser