Identifying and Diagnosing Borderline Personality

Question:

Discuss the problems related with identifying and diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for Personality Disorders

3. Aetiology – two different views

4. Problems related to identifying Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

5. Problems related to diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

6. The Borderline Patient

7. Conclusion

Introduction

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a debilitating personality disorder that can be difficult to identify and equally difficult to treat. It has come a long way since it was first added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-III, in 1980. Two psychiatrists were responsible for introducing the term “borderline” - Adolph Stern and Robert Knight. In 1938, Stern described most of the symptoms that are now considered as diagnostic criteria of borderline disorder. In the 1940s, Knight introduced the concepts of ego psychology into his description of borderline disorder (Friedel, 2011). Stern and Knight gave us clinical meaning to the “borderline” construct by identifying how some patients had a tendency to regress into "borderline schizophrenia" mental states in unstructured situations (Gunderson, 2009). In this essay, the problems related to identifying and diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder will be discussed.

DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for Personality Disorders

There are 11 different Personality Disorders identified by the DSM-IV-TR and these include: Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal, Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Avoidant, Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive. According to the DSM-IV-TR classification system, a Personality Disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is...