University of Virginia Library

Psychiatrist To Discuss
Personality Behavior

Borderline personality organization
will be discussed by the
director of the famed Menninger
Clinic in a Thursday lecture at the
University.

Dr. Onto . Kernberg, who also
serves as training analyst at the
Topeka Psychoanalytic Institute,
will report on work he has done
since he joined the clinic in Topeka.
Kan., in 1961. His talk, sponsored
by the School of Medicine's department
of psychiatry, will begin at 4
p.m. in room C-3 of the School of
Medicine.

Borderline personality organizations
fall somewhere between
neurotic and psychotic behavior
and are extremely difficult to treat.
According to Dr. Vamik Volkan,
associate professor of psychiatry at
the University, "Dr. Kernberg saved
borderline personality from becoming
a 'waste basket' diagnosis to
be used whenever the psychiatrist
was unsure.

"He observed and defined specific
symptoms for borderline cases
and is now involved in research to
develop treatments," Dr. Volkan
says.