Meissner's approach to treatment of borderline patients involves a delineation of a varying range of structural and functional levels of borderline pathology. He calls for a variety of flexible psychotherapeutic strategies correlated to the patient's level of pathology.

In this volume, Dr William Meissner offers a concrete approach to the therapy of borderline patients. For Meissner, the term "borderline" does not refer to one diagnostic entity, but rather to a series of entities of varying degrees of pathological organization, reflecting a range of structural and functional levels. This shift in viewpoint has crucial implications for clinical treatment. It calls for a variety of psychotherapeutic strategies and a more flexible, more responsive therapeutic schema correlated to the patient's level of pathology.