The Emotional Cascade Model of Borderline Personality Disorder

The emotional cascade model (ECM) proposes a significant perspective on the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD), suggesting that experiencing multiple emotional cascades leads to the emergence and progression of BPD over time. The ECM proposed by Selby et al. (Behav Res Ther 46(5):593–611, 2008) provides a broad model for understanding the association between aversive negative emotional states and a wide array of dysregulated behaviors and is a unique one to explain the interplay between emotion dysregulation and behavioral dysregulation. Emotional cascades have been introduced according to a real-time phenomenon, in which there is an event, an emotional cascade, and dysregulated behaviors. According to the ECM, the core psychopathology in BPD is eventuated from emotional cascades. The emotional cascade suggests the association between unpleasantly aversive emotions and behavioral dysregulation is elucidated by a vicious self-perpetuating cycle of rumination, negative thoughts, and negative emotion. These emotional cascades occur more frequently and intensely in BPD individuals in comparison with other externalizing disorders, such as eating disorders. In line with the ECM, there is a reciprocal association between negative emotion and ruminative processes which leads to a “cascade of emotion,” which is commenced via an emotion-elicited event. This event entails an individual to ruminate intensely, which contributes to exacerbating the intensity of emotion. While the intensity of emotion rises, it becomes a hard task for an individual with BPD to elude from emotional experience through distracting attention, and in turn, an individual’s attention may be focused on emotional stimuli. Therefore, a positive feedback loop between rumination and negative affect will be generated.