Bernstein, J. (2005). Living in the Borderland. East Sussex, UK: Routledge
Bernstein believes the emergence of the borderland personality is evolutionary and a collective unconscious attempt to reconnect our ego to its forgotten psychic roots. Borderland people are sensitive to their environment, intuitive, kinesthetic and tuned into the energies around them. They inevitably suffer a split and psychic tension between ego and nature as they attempt to rationalize and integrate their transrational experiences into consciousness. Bernstein says these people are often incorrectly diagnosed as borderline personality types or schizophrenic, causing them further alienation and psychological damage to their already sensitive psyches.
Bernstein describes how the invention of the written word detached us from nature and a culture of ritual and symbol. Our left-brain Logos thinking state now dominates our right-brain Eros feeling state. Ancient oral culture had a numinous quality that facilitated a connection to nature, tradition, ceremony and healing techniques that have been lost in the modern world.
Bernstein suggests the introduction of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew bible, created an archetypal figure in the form of man: ‘I am that I am’ (Pg. 27). Could this have been the beginning of our separation from nature and shift of mans experience of the sacred from outer to inner?
Bernstein has spent many years living and working with the American Navajo who continue to worship animals and nature for their spiritual needs and wisdom. The Navajo relate to a ‘living universe’ and reject the Western culture’s tendency to reduce, manipulate and control the environment. Bernstein says the Western ego is at risk of extinction because of ‘overspecialization’ (Pg. 43). We have learnt to shut down and repress our thinking, but somatically we experience a ‘feeling realization’, which if repressed, will manifest as chronic physical and mental illness (Pg. 43).
Our client’s who live in the split of the borderland, need to have their experience validated for healing and integration to occur. As therapists, we do damage when we diminish the value of our client’s subjective reality.