Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind in Female Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

Empirical studies have identified deficits in cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM) in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), but results remain heterogeneous and not much is known about the role of childhood trauma. The current study assessed cognitive and affective ToM in 80 patients with BPD and 41 healthy controls in a false-belief cartoon task. Childhood trauma was measured with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Patients with BPD responded slower in all experimental conditions in false-belief situations, but not when false beliefs were resolved; made more errors in the cognitive ToM condition; and reported worse affective states more often in and after false-belief situations. No significant correlations between ToM and childhood trauma could be found. The current study revealed deficits in cognitive and affective ToM in patients with BPD that may be related to a more negative affective state raised by the false-belief stories.

Download Full-text

Association between Childhood Trauma and Dissociation Among Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1080/j.1440-1614.2006.01825.x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 40 (5) ◽

pp. 478-481 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Stuart Watson ◽

Roy Chilton ◽

Helen Fairchild ◽

Peter Whewell

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ◽

Dissociative Experiences Scale ◽

Dissociative Experiences ◽

Scale Scores

Objective: To examine the relationship between childhood trauma and dissociative experience in adulthood in patients with borderline personality disorder. Method: Dissociative experiences scale scores and subscale scores for the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were correlated in 139 patients. Patients were dichotomized into high or low dissociators using the Median Dissociative Experiences Scale score as the cut-off. Results: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Subscale scores for emotional and physical abuse and emotional neglect but not sexual abuse correlated significantly with Dissociative Experiences Scale scores. High dissociators reported significantly greater levels of emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect but not sexual abuse than low dissociators. Conclusion: Patients with borderline personality disorder therefore demonstrated levels of dissociation that increased with levels of childhood trauma, supporting the hypothesis that traumatic childhood experiences engender dissociative symptoms later in life. Emotional abuse and neglect may be at least as important as physical and sexual abuse in the development of dissociative symptoms.

Download Full-text

Relationship of Personality to Dissociation and Childhood Trauma in Borderline Personality Disorder

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s109285290001912x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 755-762 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Daphne Simeon ◽

Dorothy Nelson ◽

Rachela Elias ◽

Jennifer Greenberg ◽

Eric Hollander

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Short Form ◽

Small Sample Size ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Small Sample ◽

Emotional Neglect ◽

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ◽

The Relationship

ABSTRACTBackground:Dissociation is a prominent feature in some individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet our understanding of the meanings and implications of prominent dissociation in BPD remains limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between dissociation and childhood trauma in BPD and to explore the relationships of dissociation and trauma to various personality features of BPD.Methods:Twenty BPD subjects and 24 healthy comparison subjects of similar age and gender were administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—short form, the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Defense Style Questionnaire, the Relationship Style Questionnaire, and the Schema Questionnaire.Results:The BPD group exhibited greater dissociation and childhood trauma, as well as greater pathology in most personality variables, compared with the healthy group. Dissociation in BPD was not significantly related to total childhood trauma, but only to emotional neglect, which accounted for 23% of the variance in dissociation scores.Conclusion:Within the BPD group, dissociation was associated with fearful attachment and immature defenses, while total childhood trauma and emotional neglect were associated with overconnection and disconnection schemata. This is a preliminary study with a small sample size, yet the correlates of dissociation in BPD merit further investigation.

Download Full-text

Exploration of Theory of Mind in a Situation of Social Rejection in Borderline Personality Disorder

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct03968081 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Social Rejection ◽

Borderline Personality

Download Full-text

Narrative coherence of autobiographical memories in women with borderline personality disorder and associations with childhood adversity

Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation ◽

10.1186/s40479-021-00159-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Glenn Bendstrup ◽

Erik Simonsen ◽

Mickey T. Kongerslev ◽

Mie S. Jørgensen ◽

Lea S. Petersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Childhood Adversity ◽

Narrative Structure ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Narrative Coherence ◽

Autobiographical Memories ◽

Tentative Evidence

Abstract Background People suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) seem to have incoherent autobiographical narratives. Tentative evidence suggests that reduced narrative coherence of autobiographical memories is associated with insecure attachment. However, it remains unknown whether incoherent autobiographical narratives in people with BPD are coupled to experiences of childhood trauma, which is highly prevalent in BPD. Method We examined if written autobiographical memories in 26 female participants with BPD had reduced narrative coherence relative to 28 healthy female controls and whether more incoherent narratives were associated with childhood trauma. Results As hypothesized, results showed that compared to controls, the autobiographical memories in participants with BPD had reduced narrative coherence, specifically inadequate orientation about the narrative and lack of narrative structure. More self-reported childhood adversity was coupled to lower orientation across groups whereas increased childhood adversity showed a specific relationship to lowered narrative structure in BPD participants. Conclusion Women with BPD had incoherent autobiographical narratives, and reduced narrative coherence was associated with more self-reported childhood adversity, which appeared to explain the group differences.

Download Full-text

Deficits of Affect Mentalization in Patients with Drug Addiction: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects

ISRN Addiction ◽

10.1155/2013/250751 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Svetoslav Savov ◽

Nikola Atanassov

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Drug Addiction ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Complex Form ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Clinical Aspects ◽

Empirical Testing ◽

Affective States ◽

Psychodynamically Oriented

Traditionally treated with wariness, drug addictions have provoked a serious interest in psychodynamically oriented clinicians in recent decades. This paper discusses the development of contemporary psychodynamic conceptualizations of addictions, focusing specifically on mentalization-based theories. The concept of mentalization refers to a complex form of self-regulation which includes attribution of psychological meaning to one’s own behavior and affective states, as well as those of the others. We hypothesize that drug-addicted patients have severe impairments in mentalizing, associated with developmental deficits, characteristic for the borderline personality disorder and psychosomatic conditions. Psychodynamic models of mentalization and their corresponding research operationalizations are reviewed, and implications for a contemporary understanding of drug addictions and psychotherapy are drawn. The authors propose that mentalization-oriented theories provide an adequate conceptualization, which is open to empirical testing and has clear and pragmatic guidelines for treatment.

Download Full-text

Associations of childhood trauma, trauma in adulthood and previous-year stress with psychopathology in patients with major depression and borderline personality disorder

Child Abuse & Neglect ◽

10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.04.003 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 35 (8) ◽

pp. 647-654 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Katja Wingenfeld ◽

Camille Schaffrath ◽

Nina Rullkoetter ◽

Christoph Mensebach ◽

Nicole Schlosser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Major Depression ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Borderline Personality

Download Full-text

A meta-analysis of theory of mind and ‘mentalization’ in borderline personality disorder: a true neuro-social-cognitive or meta-social-cognitive impairment?

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291721003718 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Emre Bora

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Cognitive Style ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Meta Analyses

Abstract Background It is widely accepted that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with significant impairments in mentalization and theory of mind (ToM) which are considered as closely related concepts by many authors particularly in psychoanalytical circles. However, for understanding interpersonal difficulties in personality disorders, it is important to distinguish neuro-social cognitive impairment from the abnormal meta-social-cognitive style of patients. Methods The current systematic review aimed to conduct separate meta-analyses of ‘mentalization’ [reflective functioning (RF] and different aspects of ToM in BPD. A literature search was conducted to locate relevant articles published between January 1990 to July 2021. Random-effect meta-analyses were conducted in 34 studies involving 1448 individuals with BPD and 2006 healthy controls. Results A very large impairment in RF was evident in BPD [d = 1.68, confidence interval (CI) = 1.17–2.19]. In contrast, ToM impairment was modest (d = 0.36, CI = 0.24–0.48). BPD patients underperformed healthy controls in ToM-reasoning (d = 0.44, CI = 0.32–0.56) but not ToM-decoding. Increased HyperToM (d = 0.60, CI = 0.41–0.79) and faux pas recognition (d = 0.62, CI = 0.35–0.90) errors in BPD compared to healthy controls were most robust ToM findings in this meta-analysis. Conclusions BPD is characterized by very severe deficits in RF and modest and selective abnormalities in ToM. Interpersonal problems and difficulties in processing social information in BPD can be best explained by patients' maldaptive meta-social cognitive style and top-down effects of these abnormalities rather than having a primary neuro-social cognitive deficit.

Download Full-text