the mother of a pre-borderline child, however, tends to respond to her child in a different way—either by pushing her child away prematurely and discouraging reunion (perhaps due to her own fear of closeness) or by insisting on a clinging symbiosis (perhaps due to her own fear of abandonment and need for intimacy). In either case, the child becomes burdened by intense fears of abandonment and/or engulfment that are mirrored back to him by the mother’s own fears.
