Immersion in the mother: Lacanian perspectives on borderline states

Abstract

Borderline states have received comparatively little attention in Lacanian psychoanalysis due to the lower incidence of borderline pathology in France as well as Lacanian analysts’ dismissal of the diagnosis. As Lacanian analysis has grown in North America, Lacanians have increasingly theorized about borderline states. This article provides a brief review of Lacanian literature on borderline states, emphasizing the works of Lucie Cantin, Raul Moncayo, and Jean-Pierre Lebrun. Their views are contrasted, and the author proposes that a new subjective structure is warranted for cases in which the mother plays a dominating role. This structure is similar to perversion, includes a disavowal of access to the Name-of-the-Father, and may be aptly referred to as “immersion.”.