Borderline disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: an equivalence?

This paper draws attention to various similarities between Borderline Personality Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is argued that the former may be considered to be an equivalent of the latter, with the difference that the trauma has either undergone repression or, having been suffered before the establishment of speech, has not been registered in verbal form. The criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder are presented in terms of symptoms of failed attachment consistent with early trauma, and various research papers linking these concepts are considered. Other research in infant attachment suggests intergenerational links between disorganised attachment patterns in infancy and parents with unresolved problems with their own parents. Research concerning the biochemical underpinning of emotional responses is quoted to link these conditions more securely, and may offer a conceptual framework in which to understand the need of these patients for a therapeutic milieu in which early developmental needs may be understood.