Premium
Self and identity in borderline personality disorder: Agency and mental time travel
Author(s) -
Gold Natalie,
Kyratsous Michalis
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12769
Subject(s) - social connectedness , borderline personality disorder , identity (music) , narrative , agency (philosophy) , psychology , personality , narrative identity , psychotherapist , dialogical self , psychology of self , self , identity formation , social psychology , psychoanalysis , self concept , sociology , aesthetics , social science , philosophy , linguistics
We consider how conceptions of the self and identity from the philosophical literature can help us to understand identity disturbance in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We present 3 philosophical approaches: connectedness, narrative, and agency. We show how these map on to 3 different ways in which the self can be temporally extended. The connectedness approach is dominant in philosophy, and the narrative approach has been used by psychiatry, but we argue that the lesser‐known agency approach provides a promising way to theorize some aspects of identity disturbance in BPD. It relates the 2 diagnostic criteria of identity disturbance and disinhibition and is consistent with evidence of memory deficits and altered self‐processing in BPD patients.