Collage Provoked an Insight in Patient with Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Aims:

To depict collage provoked an insight in female patient (31) suffering from borderline personality disorder following outpatient psychotherapy.

Methods:

Cut of images technique for making collage which later on was used during psychotherapy sessions.

Results:

The patient could easily identify herself with the collage's image of a girl on the toilet. During psychotherapy session we discovered that the toilet was a very important place in her childhood because it was the only place where she got the chance to be alone, where she felt safe and where her boundaries were respected by her parents. the second most important figure she described as her inside. She became aware of inner wild and aggressive nature because of the enormous pain which comes from her feeling of being used and cheated.

The predominant symptoms in patient were impulsive, uncontrolled actions and the oppositionality was very low. She described the position of a victim many times in life, but we couldn’t approach this experience in experiential way until we used collage technique. Patient identification with figures brought her to awareness of her feelings and helped her to recognize it later in everyday life situation; she learned how to deal with it, how to take the space she needs and how to protect her boundaries.

Conclusion:

The insight that she had using the collage technique moved her toward better understanding of the pattern of her actions and propelled her to different behavior which enabled her better social functioning and more satisfying life.