ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic writers have traced the etiology of borderline personality disorder (BPD) to be a preoedipal disturbance in the mother-child relationship. Despite the prevalence of theories focusing on the role of mothering in the development of BPD, few empirical studies have tested the hypothesis that borderlines were the recipients of unempathic mothering. The current preliminary study compared 13 mothers of borderline adolescents with 13 mothers of normal adolescents. This study found that mothers of borderlines tended to conceive of their children egocentrically, as need-gratifying objects, rather than as individuals with distinct and evolving personalities. This study also found that the mothers of borderlines reported raising their daughters in extremely chaotic families struggling to cope with multiple hardships, including divorce and financial worries. The stressful environmental circumstances reported by the mothers likely affected the borderline daughters directly as well as the mothers' ability to parent effectively and empathically. The results of this study suggest that, as predicted by psychoanalytic theory, a problematic mother-child relationship may play a significant role in the genesis of borderline pathology; however, the life circumstances that contextualize the mother-child relationship also need to be considered when accounting for the etiology of BPD.
Subject(s)
Borderline Personality Disorder/psychology , Empathy , Family/psychology , Mother-Child Relations , Personality Development , Adolescent , Borderline Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Defense Mechanisms , Female , Humans , Parenting/psychology , Personality Assessment , Psychoanalytic Theory , Rage , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
This study explored empirically the relationship between developmental history variables and several dimensions of object relations in a sample of 36 female adolescent inpatients. The results document the importance of preoedipal experience, the relationship with the mother, and continuity of attachments in shaping object relations. In addition, the data point to the importance of distinguishing different dimensions of object relations, such as the affective quality of the object world and the logic and accuracy of attributions, which may have different developmental correlates. The findings also suggest the impact of sexual abuse, typically a postoedipal experience, on enduring object-relational processes.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/etiology , Object Attachment , Adolescent , Child , Child Abuse, Sexual/psychology , Child Development , Female , Hospitalization , Humans , Life Change Events , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/psychology , Parent-Child Relations , Parents/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Social Adjustment , Thematic Apperception TestABSTRACT
Although pathological object relations is a core aspect of borderline psychopathology, few studies have examined borderline object relations empirically, and none has focused on borderline adolescents. The present study examined four dimensions of object relations, as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test, in a sample of adolescent borderlines, psychiatric comparison subjects, and normals. These dimensions are complexity of object representations, affect-tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and moral standards, and understanding of social causality. Borderlines differed significantly from both comparison groups in several distinct ways, supporting some aspects of psychoanalytic theories of borderline object relations, while challenging others. Borderline adolescents have a malevolent object world, a relative incapacity to invest in others in a non-need-gratifying way, and a tendency to attribute motivation to others in simple, illogical, and idiosyncratic ways. Their object representations, however, can be quite complex, suggesting something other than a preoedipal arrest.
Subject(s)
Borderline Personality Disorder/psychology , Object Attachment , Adolescent , Borderline Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Female , Humans , Male , Personality Development , Thematic Apperception TestABSTRACT
Adult criteria for borderline personality disorder distinguished a group of 27 inpatient adolescent girls from 23 nonborderline inpatient female comparison subjects. The two groups were compared on retrospectively assessed variables measuring psychological, familial, and constitutional factors. Variables most likely to predict borderline personality disorder included history of disrupted attachments, maternal neglect, maternal rejection, grossly inappropriate parental behavior, number of mother and father surrogates, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Families of borderline adolescents were chronically disrupted, particularly during the patients' early childhoods. The traumatic childhood experiences of the borderline adolescents were similar to those of adults with borderline personality disorder in recent studies.
