BORDERLINE

The evolving status of a misunderstood mental illness.

In this probing study, Kriss, author of The Gaming Mind, traces the history of what is now known as borderline personality disorder, alongside a detailed account of the author’s therapy sessions with a young female patient diagnosed with it. A psychologist with extensive experience treating BPD, Kriss argues that its sufferers have generally been mischaracterized and neglected by health professionals; that it seems to arise via particular environmental stressors encountered in childhood; and that, contrary to popular belief, there are real possibilities for treating it successfully. More broadly, he contends that the insights he has gained in treating his patients are relevant to everyone, for the dysfunction seen in people diagnosed with BPD is simply a pronounced version of a universal human condition: “The borderline experience exists, to some degree, in all of us.” The author’s account of his interactions with his patient are insightfully and plausibly rendered, as are the challenges involved in intervening in a disorder that often leaves patients resistant to treatment and prone to self-disabling behaviors. Kriss provides an illuminating survey of the prominence of the disorder in the history of psychology and psychiatry, and readers will gain a keen appreciation of how sexist assumptions have led to useless or damaging interventions. The author presents a compelling case for a revision of how BPD is categorized and for the value of innovative therapeutic approaches. As he concludes, the lessons we learn by studying this disorder are profound, with far-reaching implications. “BPD, for its millennia-old status as an outlier, can teach us how to be a healthy kind of normal, if we are willing to listen,” he writes. “It is the story of how one moves from chaos to stability.”

A revealing exploration of borderline personality disorder and the future of therapies addressing it.