Most researchers believe that there is a continuity of borderline conditions
into adulthood ( Weil 1953 ). F. Pine ( 1974) described chronic failures in real-
ity testing and object relations that prevail silently at all times in these chil-
dren and go on to make for "the odd adult." Weil ( 1953) describes the same
progression. Blum described such a continuity convincingly in his paper,
"The Borderline Childhood of the Wolf Man" (1974). M. S. Mahler ( 1971) , O. Kernberg
( 1975) , and C. J. Kestenbaum ( 1983) also support this thesis. It is
indeed justified if we assume that the borderline personality organization
will remain insulated unless there is a therapeutic intervention intense and
prolonged enough to change the internal world of the patient and enable
him to modify his inner objects in accordance with external reality.

Borderline PD in children and adolescents is likely to have a common eti-
ology. Differences between them stem more from the differences in develop-
mental levels than from any differences in the intrinsic psychopathology of
the borderline condition.

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