Internal relationship patterns in borderline and neurotic personality organization: An analysis of self-narratives

The main goals of this study are 1) to explore whether internal relationship patterns are related to personality organization, and 2) to recognize the role that selected relationship patterns play in diagnosing personality organization levels. Internal relationship patterns were assessed according to the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) - about wishes (WS), responses from others (RO), and responses of the self (RS) - as identified from participants’ self-narratives about important relationships. Significant differences in the frequencies of patterns were found among participants with borderline personality organization (BPO), neurotic personality organization (NPO), and integrated personality (IPO). For example, the majority of negative RS responses were detected in the BPO sample. The study supports the thesis that relationship patterns might be related to personality organization, and that object representation complexity may be a good predictor of integrated personality organization.