[Dysregulation of the executive system and theory of mind: clinical interest of a neuroscientific conception of BPD].

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex psychopathology. Through recent developments, neuroscience is able to contribute to better understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of BPD manifestations. This article aims to demonstrate that BPD is in part due to executive and frontal dysregulation of the mechanisms responsible for the optimal functioning of inferences specific to theory of mind. To do so, four types of observations will be examined: parallels between frontal personality and BPD, the presence of frontal cognitive deficits in BPD, the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect on brain development and finally, the results of brain imagery in BPD. This article follows in the path of a growing interest in the integration of the neuroscientific perspective of BPD to current conceptualisations in psychopathology. The final aim is to try to offer an understanding of BPD manifestations that avoids the traditional splitting between mind and brain-psychology and biology-and to show the numerous associations between clinical psychology and neurobiology.