Education Update
Borderline Personality Disorder: A view from the trenches, with special attention to its impact on family transition
Joan S Anderson
Psychology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America
David Crump
University of Houston Law Centre, Houston, Texas, United States of America
PP: 254
Abstract
This article is intended for reading by people who seek to understand the contradictory, unpredictable, and frustrating phenomenon of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Readers may include clinicians, therapists, and family mediators. Since many observations in this article are based on the experience of the clinical author, coming as they do 'from the trenches', they may not appear in other scholarly works. It is expected that readers may also include lay people who have an interest in BPD, particularly spouses and significant others of persons with borderline processes.
People who deal with persons with BPD may develop strong emotional and behavioural responses that can be as difficult, or perhaps more difficult, to bear than those borne by those with the disorder themselves. People who interact with persons with borderline processes need to understand that the disorder varies, is seen differently by different observers, and is difficult to define or diagnose. The descriptions sometimes vary among experts.
Whenever technical terms appear, we have tried to translate them into generally accessible language. But often the only accurate term is the technical one, and lay language furnishes only an approximation.
Therefore, the casual reader may encounter more jargon than might seem desirable. Still, the objective is to provide a resource to professionals, as well as one that can be read and understood by lay people.
Keywords
mental health, mental illness, borderline personality disorder, parental divorce
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