Borderline Personality Disorder from a structural perspective

Abstract

Personality, can be understood as a complex pattern of psychological characteristics that are expressed in many areas of psychological functioning, involves a range of internal psychological processes, such as patterns of thinking and feeling, ways of experiencing oneself and others, ways of coping and motives. In the personality disorder, the psychology of the person is rigid or inflexible and generates significant anguish to himself or to others. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) consists of a pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affections, marked impulsivity, which begins in early adulthood and occurs in a variety of contexts. It has a multifactorial etiology and three dominant factors can be identified that play an important role in its development, such as the presence of a vulnerable and sensitive biologically based temperament; a chaotic and traumatic family environment and triggering environmental events, generally associated with interpersonal relationships. Otto Kernberg’s structural model proposes that BPD is found in a Borderline Organization of Personality, which is characterized by a test of reality that is conserved but vulnerable in intense affective states, the predominance of defenses around spliting and identity diffusion moderate to severe.