Language and the verbal self. The relationship between borderline pathologies and severe dysphasia in the child.

This study outlines the convergences and divergences that exist between severe dysphasia and borderline pathologies in children. It also aims at investigating the underlying disorders which are responsible for the symptomatic picture of severe dysphasia. The concept of a major disorder in representational activity seems promising in this respect; it has clinical applications and should be extended by an investigation into the question of self-representation in the severely dysphasic child, taking into account the contribution made by Stern on the process of construction of a 'sense of self, notably that of a 'sense of the verbal self. From a dialectical point of view, dysphasia provides the requisite model which allows both the testing of those concepts regarding the general psychology of self, and also those hypotheses put forward by Bruner when studying the relationship between knowing how to behave appropriately (savoir-faire) and the capacity to use speech appropriately (savoir-dire). (C) 1999 Elsevier, Paris.