Alcohol abuse and the borderline patient.

Effective treatment of the alcohol-abusing borderline patient involves knowledge of two pathological processes. Alcoholism treatment methods and theory can have a profound effect upon the approach used with such patients, helping the therapist deal with the patient in a way that is respectful of his strengths and weaknesses. This paper describes how a knowledge of alcoholism treatment can be used in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, which is defined as the application of analytically-derived insights into motivations and resistances. Treatment of the alcoholism and the psychiatric disorder are best begun together at the outset of therapy, each method assisting the other.