The unconscious: Comparative perspectives in clinical work with neurotic, borderline and psychotic patients

In this paper I want to explore whether it is possible to establish a correlation between different levels of pathology and the distortions of some unconscious functions necessary for good mental functioning. My hypothesis is that mental health depends on the possibility to use an apparatus that allows us to contain and keep our emotions alive as well as to give meaning to them. This apparatus functions all the time, beyond individual consciousness. Some patients have this apparatus or have at least the potential to develop it whereas others, such as borderline and psychotic patients seem to be lacking it completely, hence the difficulty of analyzing these kinds of patients. © 2013, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.