The fairy tale as paradigm of the separation-individuation crisis: implications for treatment of the borderline adolescent.

This chapter is an attempt to offer a model for therapeutic work with borderline patients that is based on the structure and content of the fairy tale. It views the fairy tale as both descriptive in its echoing of developmental struggles of childhood and integrative in providing a model for resolution of these conflicts. Clare's use of the fairy tale offers confirmation of theoretical notions which place the etiology of borderline pathology in early developmental failures and a clue to the therapeutic work with borderline patients. While the childhood route of the fairy tale may no longer be available to most, its subtle mirroring of the separation-individuation crisis and gradual, growthful steps toward integration of both the external and the internal worlds offer an exquisite model for the work of psychotherapy. "Once a king in Narnia , always a king in Narnia . But don't go trying to use the same route twice. . ." (Lewis 1950, p. 186).