Borderline Personality

Borderline Personality People with borderline personality disorder have been the inspiration for fictional characters in movies such as Fatal Attraction, Misery, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and Single White Female (Sansone & Levitt, 2005). There is an interesting combination of characteristics, such as mood instability, intense fear of abandonment, self-damaging impulsivity, and intense unstable relationships that make for interesting dramatic characters. People suffering with this illness in real life have to face many difficulties due to this illness. They are avoided by others, even kept distant from their clinicians, and blamed for their own illness when others see it as an attitude or character flaw. They suffer through self-injury and
Contrary to predictions prior to the study by Startup, Heard and Swades (2001), the tendency to produce overgeneralized memories is associated with less parasuicide incidents. This may be an adaptive response to protect the patient from thoughts and feelings that lead to self-injury. Borderline patients were tested with the AMT (autobiographical memory test), and those with the greatest overgeneralized recall reported the fewest parasuicidal acts. In a study of borderline patients, they had more specific memories after fifteen months of treatment, and fewer categorical memories (Kremers et al., 2006). However, a study by Renneburg et al. (2005) showed that specificity of memories was not related to self-injury incidents. Borderline personality disorder is an Axis II personality disorder. Because personalities can change, the diagnosis is not made in patients less than eighteen years of age unless it is persistent, pervasive, and does not seem to be caused by a developmental phase. For children diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, only one-third of these patients still met the diagnosis criteria two years later (Garnet, as cited by Meekings & O’Brien,
It can be seen as a distinct psychopathology. This categorical approach would imply a causal factor that is either present or not. BPD can also be viewed as an extreme on a continuum that can include normal in the spectrum. This dimensional view implies an additive combination of many small causes. This view would account for differences in severity and symptoms, depending on the number and combinations of causal factors. Borderline patients function along a continuum. The higher functioning patients have fewer quasi-psychotic episodes and self-injure discreetly so there is no visible evidence. Higher functioning patients also have a more stable social façade and less liability in affect (Sansone & Levitt, 2005). Borderline personality disorder shows more categorical characteristics than other personality disorders such as schizotypal and antisocial personalities (Rothschild et al, 2003). Another difference in viewpoint is seen between the United States psychologists and those of the United Kingdom. The UK psychologists see borderline personality disorder as a psychosocial disorder, most likely caused by child abuse (especially sexual abuse). They will treat patients with psychotherapy, although the British see the condition as basically untreatable (Swinton,