Borderline Personality Disorder

This book is an ideal resource for general readers who want a clear understanding of people suffering with chaotic emotions, and for clinicians treating patients for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The patterns of behavior of those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are often frustrating and mystifying to both clinicians and family members, despite several decades of study and research on this form of distress. Borderline Personality Disorder: New Perspectives on a Stigmatizing and Overused Diagnosis presents a thorough critical and historical review of the diagnosis of BPD and explores-through academic and clinical narratives-the different processes that occur in borderline behavior patterns. The authors offer new perspectives that emphasize the whole person rather than a diagnosis, addressing the emotional storms and mood instability of BPD, providing guidance on managing emotional chaos in the therapeutic relationship, and explaining how to use one's own feelings as a clinical tool. Their approach gives an intimate experiential feel for the interpersonal processes that occur in psychotherapy for both the patient and therapist. The result: readers will better understand who the person behind the diagnosis is, and comprehend what it really feels like to be someone struggling with these difficult interpersonal patterns.

Jacqueline Simon Gunn, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice and a freelance writer. She is the former psychology internship training director and clinical supervisor at The Karen Horney Clinic.
Brent Potter, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist, child mental health specialist, and ethnic minority mental health specialist.

Series Foreword by Judy Kuriansky
1 Introduction: The Borderline Personality Personified
The Scarlet Label
Mary
Andria
2 A Historical Anatomy of a Social Construction: "Wandering Womb," Hysteria, Psychiatric Disease
Antiquity: Maladies of the Feminine and the Feminine as Malady
Middle Ages: From Uterus as Endoparasite to Demonic Possession
Modernity: From Bedevilment to Brain Disease: Orgasm Therapy and the Rise of the Respected Physician
Deliteralizing the Feminine: Dynamic, Developmental, and Social Contextualisms
Contextualism Abandoned and BPD's Formal Entry into the Psychiatric "Bible"
3 The "Borderline" as a Human Person: Contemporary Perspectives
"Borderline" Is to Psychiatry as Psychiatry Is to Medicine
Contexts of Agony
An Experientialist Description of Being with "Borderline Personality Disorder"
4 Chewed Up-Spat Out: Jane's Story
5 Emotional Jungle Gym: Melanie's Story
6 The Permeable Frame: Ethan's Story
7 Watering Flowers: The Stories of Caroline, Violet, and Charley
8 Conclusion: Reflections, New Directions
References
Appendix: Wellness and Recovery Resources
Index