Borderline Personality Disorder: Definition and History

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a remarkably prevalent personality disorder among clinical and community samples emerging by late adolescence and early adolescence. BPD consists of a wide range of symptoms including emotional instability, chaotic interpersonal relationships, fear of abandonment, emotion dysregulation, chronic dysphoria or depression, feelings of emptiness, behavioral disturbances, impaired psychological functions, emotional instability, problematic interpersonal relationships, self-image issues, self-inflicted self-injury, and suicide attempts. Furthermore, other self-destructive behaviors are frequently present, such as substance use, sexual risk-taking, impulsiveness, and strong feelings of severely deep inadequacy, and dissociative experiences. Phenomenological descriptions of individuals with BPD date back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the concept of BPD did not emerge in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The conceptualization of BPD has been influenced by various descriptions over many decades from 1938 up to now. Several definitions have been suggested for BPD, especially borderline personality organization. Today, many researchers and clinicians attempt to conceptualize borderline based on psychological approaches, such as psychoanalytic and cognitive behavioral perspectives.