‘ Psychoanalytic Understanding of Emotionally Unregulated Personality Disorder: Countertransference as a Guide, not a Problem’

Speaker: Marcus Evans

Date: Friday 23rd Janaury 2026

Time: 13:30 - 15:45

Venue: Online

Cost: £40

Register your attendance here

Bio

Marcus Evans is a Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis and a consultant psychotherapist and mental health nurse with 45 years of experience in mental health. He was head of the nursing discipline at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust between 1998 and 2018. He was also the lead clinician in the adult and adolescent service and one of the founding members of Fitzjohn’s Service for the treatment of patients with severe and enduring mental health conditions and/or personality disorders. 

He has written and taught extensively on applying psychoanalytic thinking in mental health settings. Including two books about psychiatric services  ‘Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Psychotic Communications,’ and ‘Psychoanalytic Thinking in Mental Health Settings’.

His Fourth Book Identity and the Foundational Myth: Psychoanalytic Insights into Gender Dysphoria is due out in November. 

Synopsis

Patients with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder can shift rapidly between moments of insight and maturity and states of fragmentation that overwhelm both themselves and those around them. In crisis, disturbing feelings are often expelled into others and acted out in ways that appear chaotic or self-destructive. These states are sometimes dismissed as mere attention-seeking, yet they express psychic pain that cannot otherwise be borne.

Such patients frequently struggle to maintain a stable sense of self and often seek intense, “special” relationships in which they hope unbearable dependency needs can be met. This can place extraordinary pressure on professionals and services. The atmosphere created can generate confusion, anxiety, and powerful emotional responses in those attempting to help.

These reactions—our countertransference—are often minimised or viewed as unprofessional. Yet if understood and reflected upon, they offer crucial insight into what is happening between patient and professional. Far from being a hindrance, countertransference can illuminate the nature of the patient’s inner world and guide us toward therapeutic engagement rather than enactment.

This seminar will explore how countertransference provides a vital lens through which to understand borderline states of mind and how it can be used to support both clinicians and patients in moments of crisis.

To read beforehand:

Essential - Evans, M. (2016). Being Driven Mad: Towards Understanding Borderline States. (Chapter 3) In. Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Psychotic Communication.  Tavistock book series, London: Karnac. 

Additional - Lucas, R. (2009). Differentiating the psychotic process from psychotic disorders. (Chapter 10) In. The Psychotic Wavelength: A Psychoanalytic Perspective for Psychiatry. Hove Rutledge. 

Additional - STEINER, J. (1979) The border between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive positions in the borderline patient, Brit. J. Medical Psychol. 52 385-391