Mind Matters is edited by Jonah Lehrer, the science writer behind the blog The Frontal Cortex and the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist.
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A new study provides an illuminating look into the brains of sufferers.
Mind Matters is edited by Jonah Lehrer, the science writer behind the blog The Frontal Cortex and the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist.
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg is director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.
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31 Comments
Add CommentOddly, during a training session provided by a mental health expert, the statement was made that almost all teenagers, especially during those troubling "hormonal" tranistion periods, could be officially calssified as Borderline (BPD).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi would like to find out more about BPD,where can i go ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot odd at all. People say such things all the time. I used to think it was all just shades of grey, myself, until at 30, I was diagnosed with a personality disorder in a base hospital after a recommendation from my Commander. I thought "the military says I have personality disorder? There's a pot calling a kettle black..." but alas, they were right. It is a very real deal. There are nearly infinite possibilities why a person develops the way they do, For me, it was simply useful knowledge, so I know what to look for in my own behavior, so I can step back and say "wait a minute, this is a person, not a chess piece." Because, before that, well...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this controlled with Prozac or other types of medication used for bipolar and / or depression? My mother suffered from all these things and for a couple short months the year before she died, she was so happy and easy to get along with, then she quit the prozac because of pride, and because she didn't like being happy. These disorders are so baffling to family and friends.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom years of putting up a with a highly intelligent and severely bpd partner I wonder if you are not looking at an effect and not a cause of the problem. Lots of projection seems to occur - seeing facial expressions that aren't there imputing meaning to words, taking words out of context and finishing sentences. The intent to act to confirm the inner anxiety is formed before the interaction with the partner takes place. The relationship is hugely manipulative on the part of the BPD. The reason why it s dominant in females is that the male version manifests itself as as more narcissistic and sometimes physically violent. The genders tend to have a polarity towards anxiety in women and narcissism for men. as a result the external behaviors are different for the same physical condition. It is genetic (principally) my partners whole family had both high intelligence and high eccentricity. It may also be a chemical balance issue as it showed strong temporal patterning - with a three days good two days building and two days of hell like clock work though certain stimuli could over ride this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh Great another three letter disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyes and probably the most widespread socially disruptive and damaging one on the planet - in its varying manifestations - it is at the root of much discord a large number of divorces and destroyed family lives and workplace. I am ceo of a small (100 staff) professional and science based organization. I engage an industrial psychologist t0 protect my staff from people with it and to remove or harmlessly contain them within the organization. about 5% of existing staff suffer from some signs of BPD and the worst one resigned yesterday. They live like old west gunfighters constantly seeking a fight or worse manipulating others into conflict situations and it is even worse being married to one, so don't be so dismissive!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(Reply to comment made by SS):
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProzac is for depression, and though depression is usually present in BPD patients it doesn't control the disorder itself. There is no cure for BPD, however control can be gained through through therapy and anti-psychotics like Hadol or Geodon.
My daughter has suffered with it since she was 11 years old. She's now 27. She gets better on medication, then promptly decides the medication isn't helping and/or "God" doesn't want her on medication. As a consequence of BPD and drug abuse (BPD was first) she lost her four children to social services and still functions on the fringes of society. She's unable to develop and maintain functional relationships and seems to find solace in creating chaos and discord. It's almost like she wants to spread her inner turmoil to her external world. Wish I had an answer for someone-I'd like to hear more success stories of people who have dealt with this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi don't have a success story. but i understand the way a person with bpd can effect ones life . my former girlfriend suffers from this and i know how one wants to help them but they won't allow it. i mean one minute they want help the next they hate you and your the one with the problem.it's sad to watch and heart breaking that you can't just save them.i hope letting you know that there are others out here helps in some way.sadly your not alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom the sparse information given in the article few conclusions can be drawn. The BDP subjects were preclassified by some unknown means. The healthy subjects were equally preclassified by unstated means. The article does not even state if the classification methods used were the same for both groups. fMRI it is of little use without large scale studies comparing a variety of subjects under many conditions. It is heartening to me to see that the fMRI was used in conjunction with game theory as this at least adds some more avenues of exploration. The interpretation of outcomes in game theory experiments are wide open. The causes and motivation of human behavior do not necessarily break down easily into logical economic analyses. In fact it is not clear that BPD patients interpret the game as economic loss or gain or as a game of social contracts. Due to the psychological aspects of paranoia for example it cannot be known from this experiment whether or not any of the subjects held a symbolic view of the game that was completely unimaginable to the experimenters and were in fact operating according to their own delusional view of reality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom the sparse information given in the article few conclusions can be drawn. The BDP subjects were preclassified by some unknown means. The healthy subjects were equally preclassified by unstated means. The article does not even state if the classification methods used were the same for both groups. fMRI it is of little use without large scale studies comparing a variety of subjects under many conditions. It is heartening to me to see that the fMRI was used in conjunction with game theory as this at least adds some more avenues of exploration. The interpretation of outcomes in game theory experiments are wide open. The causes and motivation of human behavior do not necessarily break down easily into logical economic analyses. In fact it is not clear that BPD patients interpret the game as economic loss or gain or as a game of social contracts. Due to the psychological aspects of paranoia for example it cannot be known from this experiment whether or not any of the subjects held a symbolic view of the game that was completely unimaginable to the experimenters and were in fact operating according to their own delusional view of reality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a pretty irrelevant finding. There are brain correlates for every mental state. Great. Now that we all agree. Perhaps researchers studing this condition could stop shoe-horning it into the mold of all other psychiatric research -- which I think anyone will agree is very inadequate. People talk about a "genetic predisposition" to this disorder. At this point, thats almost like science fiction. There are no candidate genes for this particular perturbation in Borderlines brains or for any other structural or chemical dysfunction. The only thing that has been clearly associated with Borderline Personality Disorder is adverse conditions in early life. Physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse. It is only a half truth that "not everyone whos is traumatized as a child develops the disorder." For Borderline, the key is the enduring and chronic nature of the trauma. That is what warps personality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no halfway acceptable basic science concering this condition. And theres no reason to think there ever will be. Unfortunately, Marsha Linehans book in 1993 was apologetic to those vested in the disorders supposed biologic roots. And cam up with her bio-social theory. Which has been the foot in the door for this type of research, even up until the present. The other less careful and unempathic brand of borderline research is almost soley focused on its "biology" and is carried out almost completely by white men, including John Gunderson. He's taken on to this "biological" approach because he spent his entire carreer blaming tormented, fragile, abused patients for their problems, and this is the only way he can reconcile his willful ignorance of the disorders psychosocial causes in the past and the light that has been shed on those causes recently.
There just isnt any basic science for this condition. It's all conjecture and sometimes flight out science fiction. There just aren't any candidate genes for this disorder an dthere no reason to think it should be caused by any genetic predisposition. It only occurs (as its recognized) in women and gay men. Period. Early trauma and enduring or chronic trauma certainly warps your brain. That's biology we know about. There's a whole literature in the trauma research field about that.
This research study was an expensive way to look at an already well-described phenomenon in Borderline people. Wow.The next three ice-ages will come before there is any good basic science for this condition --mainly because this brand of research will lead nowhere.
as a bpd going thru hell at the start of a new relationship after i thought i had learned what i needed to so i would not repeat my mistakes, i am in need of what TO DO when i feel this turmoil. what can i do to help? where do i go? what sort of therapy has shown results? will i be like this forever? this is no way to live. it hurts me and others and everything that i break and smash in my path.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe fear is the primal cause of undesirable personality traits. It is our survival mechanism. It guides us. Protects us. It is probably the strongest environmental force affecting our development. Stronger than joy. Alongside our genetic inheritance, fear is innate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe phrase 'personality disorder' is extremely disrespectful. It suggests that the person is not normal. That their brains do not function properly. This is far from the truth. In reality, the brain works fine and the human in responding to some kind of fear. What we should recognise is that people with personality disorders have been subjected to frightening, difficult, negative, unusual circumstances in their life which are highly significant to that individual and had a marked impact on them.
I accept that genetic inheritance is another factor in the mix here. However, take an individual with an 'orderly' personality, go back in time and subject them to the same environment as somebody with a 'disorder' and let's see if their personality remains as 'orderly.' Well, impossible I know.
I think it is wrong to label people as having a disorder. It is not black and white. Yes or no. There is a multi-dimensional scale of desirable to less desirable personality traits and we all lie somewhere on the scale. It is not maths and we cannot calculate a division between order and disorder. Instead we should focus on understanding humans across the whole personality spectrum. And focus on giving our children the love they need for the road to happiness, rather than fear for the road to personality disorders ;)
Success in dealing with peersons with BPD;lies in the exptremely difficult and frustrating task of building trust. In my expeerience with a number of these individuals, they almost invariably are unalbe to handle ambivalent feelings. This appears to be a developmental failure which limits the peerson to pereceiving others as either all good or allbad without any love to bond the two aspects. I once knew a surgeon who was Hell in the OR and couldn't leave until a nurse had cried. At outside social events, he was sweet and mild mannered and had no memory of his nasty outbursts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy husband has just been discharged from a mood disorders clinic where hee was treated for bipolar. Two days after discharge (after 31/2 months) he tried to commit suicide. They said he was perfectly fine when discharged. I think he really has borderline and have now contacted an expert in personality disorders who is willing to treat him . My husband informed me at the end of the stay in psych hospital that he was moving out, rented a room and did just that, with no warning. I evidently was the root of all of his problems and he no longer loved me. When he was suicidal, he called me and was in so much despair and anguish, not to mention anger at me. Then he started to cry inconsolably and admitted to me that he is terrified of not having me in his life, and is jealous of the attention I give to my son (his stepson).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat was 3 days ago. We have had contact each day since then. This morning we met for coffee and he was mad that i didn't park beside him and didn't come to get him to go in the coffeee shop, since "he didn't want to go in there and sit by himself" (he does every morning) I could see he was "out of sorts" All of a sudden he got up, stated that there would never be a reconciliation and he would never be living with anyone ever again and I was lying about why his daughter (she is a confused scared 11 year old) wouldn't talk to him (you are inconsistent and unreliable Honey)Now he is once again not answering his phone and I am once again the enemy. Is this normal for a borderline? I'm thinking, it is classic behaviour, or maybe he really does hate me.
Mental Illnes and Personality disorde are not mutually exclusive, and it is possible for one person to have both. On the Borderline side, you are two people: he loves one andd hates the other. He is unable to see you as a single peerson whom he both loves and hates. When you are "good"he is good and when you are "bad" he is bad. In both of these extremes, he is intensely engaged with you, and without this chotic relation ship he would be unbearably lonely and possibly suicidal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting. I have a 37 year old daughter who exhibits most symptoms of BPD... and I have always felt she has never progressed beyond age 15.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisApproximately a year ago, you ran an article on Mirror Neurons that described the physical basis for an emotional response: ie empathy. Is it possible that mirror neurons are divided into 2 types, one for Self and one for Other?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy observation is that normal people have empathy for themselvs and others, Sociopaths have no empathy for themselves or others, and Borderlines have empathy for themselvs but not for others.
My shorthand for this is Normal = +/+, Borderline = +/-, and Sociopath = -/- where the first function is Self and the second is Other.
Empathy appears to be the basis for what we commonly call conscience, but even conscience is split between Self and Other.
I'm looking forward to further research on mirror neurons and guessing that those who are doing the research will eventually find 2 distinct types, explaining the neural basis for several of our mental illnesses.
Best regards, Marilyn Sipila, Poulsbo, WA
I am not employed in the medical field, but I am wondering about your comment regarding your 'BPD' employees. How do you know they have this in reality? Some medical issues immitate or overlap others. I have mitral valve prolapse with re-entry issue with my heart that has been mapped by an electrophysist. It went mis-diagnosed for over 7 years. This condition has been helped considerably with beta-blockers. I think when a temper flares it is important as to whether or not one can connect the dots. When I get a straight shot of adrenanline because emotionaly shocking issue by another person OR an environmental issue that there is a sudden problem with the air circulation in the building and I didn't breathe in right. I can be shot of like a rocket - fight or flight and my heart starts racing and need my beta-blocker! Just wondering...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi have managed myself for many years with this disorder and I believe the key is to meet your needs for agression by participating in socially acceptable forms of agression. I have given myself a legal education and I fight for people that cannot either for economic, social or intellectual reasons protect themselves from a dishonest court system. My adversaries are always lawyers and always put up a real battle that more than meets my needs for agression. When I start feeling my bpd needs I go pee on a lawyer that is taking advantage of someone they shouldn't be. Then I can think of what a great guy I am and many others, especially victims agree with me. As well, people with this disorder must change what they tell themselves to the unemotional truth as our feelings lie to us with great consistancy. They tell us there is danger when no danger exists and they tell us there is no danger when there is danger. I consider bpd to be a gift if it is properly managed. Thanks Dennis McKee Beaver Falls, Pa.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI run like hell from BPD people. They love to cause trouble and are gleeful about it. They'll do things like flirt with your husband or boyfriend, or act helpless in front of men who are stupid enough to rescue them. When you get upset and say something about their lack of boundaries, they act like a "victim," thus evoking a fight between you and your spouse. I avoid BPD women like a plague. They thrive on identifying the weaknesses in others so they can later turn around and use those weaknesses against others. Their mindset, in my nonclinical opinion, is no different than that of a criminal, but because they are often so good at what they do, it's too late by the time their victims have figured it out. When it's all said and done, the victim wants to strangle the BPD person. A good example of a BPD person is antagonist (the mother) in the novel, East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi Melanie, You are correct when people with this disorder do nothing to compensate for it but that is like everything else what we do about things is a choice. Thoughts and actions are 2 different things and we can control both of them. I can think about anything I choose and can do what I choose as well. This means I can both think and act healthy and not do the things you have mentioned above. Its interesting you mentioned criminal behavior as that my friend is also a choice and not a mandate. I can just as well choose not to rob a bank as I can choose to rob one. It boils down not to the diognosis but to the character of the person and what we choose to do. Dennis McKee
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh my gosh, it is so comforting to hear that someone else is going through this. I have been living with my husband for 29 years and he has gotten so much worse in the last 4. He has basically "engineered" at complete breakdown with one of our 4 children (22 yr old daughter) and then blames me for "standing on the sidelines" and not fixing it. One day he's depressed and crying, next day he's blaming me for all of his angst. I'm very low key and emotionally stable, but I'm getting near the end of my rope on dealing with someone like this. It's so complicated and most of the literature addresses females with this. I'm hear to tell ya that there have to be plenty of men out there too. He is a master at manipulating circumstances with all of us closest to him(family) and putting us in lose-lose situations. He is the martyr. My daughter and I gave him father's day gifts 3 years ago, and they are still in a guestroom upstairs unopened! I've been telling him for years to get to a therapist - but, he is so consumed with blaming all of us, in his mind, he doesn't really need it because WE all caused his problems! There is a GREAT book called "Feeling Good" about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that pinpoints these abnormal behaviors and how to work on correcting them. Unfortunately you can lead a horse to water.............
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been diagnosed as BPD. Prior to this diagnosis I have been diagnosed with a little bit of everything, with one doctor telling me that I was to charming to have a personality disorder... really? Isn't that kinda the problem? My question is where do I go for help? As a result of my dysfunction, I am in financial crisis, with no job, no insurance, and nothing much else, except this computer and the internet. I find a lot of information regarding this illness, but evidently, its not something I can self help to resolve.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a 44 year old female who has BPD. For me I think that I have a huge genetic predisposition side as well as a abuse, maternal abandonment side as the cause of my illness. All of my life I have attempted to rise above this issue, but it has been a constant struggle despite the 15 years I have spent in therapy and on medication. In other words I have made a conscious effort to improve my well being. It has been difficult.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am very intersested in the study about the money game in the above mentioned article. I have been capable of managing patients in highly stressful situations but have had suicidal ideations when it comes to managing my finances. I have a 3rd party manage them now.
One day I want to rise above this illness and be successful in relationships and the work or business arena. Being on disability and not working is very hard on my self esteem. I was very successful in my career, but worked on a mode of panic the whole 18 years I worked. I am hoping that science can help me achieve the goal of again applying my gift.
you say your company is "professional", but it sounds to me as though you discriminate against people with BPD. it's a disease. you should be less judgemental. we don't choose to be this way and a lot of us are seeking help.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisto: idontknow (or do you go by idk)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisobviously, you don't know.
no, not a disease. a disorder.
its been around a while.
don't know much, do you?
It seems to me that there still exist problems with directionality regarding Borderline Personality Disorder. Clearly, as the above article mentioned, there exist trust issues in BPD patients. Studies show that BPD patients have trouble with ambiguity. They see others as all good or all bad and automatically assume the worst in others intentions. However, on the other side, BPD patients tend to be unstable over time in their own personality traits, particularly in neuroticism and conscientiousness, demonstrating impulsivity and low self-worth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile these two variables are important in distinguishing BPD, it is unclear whether one causes the other or vice versa. Is affective instability (rapid, sudden mood shifts) caused by the dysfunctional interpersonal relationships? Or are the dysfunctional interpersonal relationships the result of affective instability? Furthermore, is it possible that both may be the result of some unforeseen third variable?
Therefore, I would propose that researchers test these traits together. I would advice experts to create an advanced design to see which trait causes the other and if there is indeed a relationship. This link could be incredibly helpful in the treatment of the disorder. If the relationship can be degraded, there may be hope for drastic improvement of BPD patients.
Sources: Benjamin, L. & Wonderlich, S.; Hopwood, C.
If Lynn from 2008 is there, I would love to chat. I read your comment and actually thought I was reading something I had written! Thank you for putting your experience down. I have just had a similar surreal time. My husband (soon to be ex-husband) skype called me 2 months ago and told me he wants a divorce and that he can't stand to be around me, can't stand the sight of me, doesn't want to converse with me, can't stand the thought of sharing anything with me, can't stand the thought of sex with me and on and on. I thought we were relocating to Singapore! This is the end of 14 years of a marriage that included so many situations like the ones you have written about. How did you get through the shock and the grief?
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