Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:09:46.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Emotion Regulation in a Disordered World

Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder

from Part III - Borderline Personality and Eating Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2020

By
Matthew Ratcliffe  and
Anna Bortolan
Edited by
Christian Tewes  and
Giovanni Stanghellini
Christian Tewes
Affiliation:
Heidelberg University Hospital
Giovanni Stanghellini
Affiliation:
Chieti University
Get access

Summary

This paper addresses the phenomenology of emotion dysregulation, focusing on borderline personality disorder (BPD). We emphasize how (a) emotions ordinarily arise within the context of a structured experiential world, (b) emotions play a role in maintaining, repairing, and reshaping that world, and (c) both the world's stability and the workings of emotion processes depend on our being able to relate to other people in certain ways. We go on to show how, if (a), (b), and (c) are accepted, emotion dysregulation (of the kind associated with BPD) is implied by a way of experiencing and relating to the social world as whole. Hence, it is not to be conceived of simply as a matter of disordered emotion. Rather, it involves emotions operating upon a disordered world. Furthermore, given that other people play essential roles in sustaining a structured, practically meaningful world and regulating the emotions that arise within it, emotion regulation and dysregulation turn out to be interpersonal, rather than wholly intrapersonal, in structure.

Keywords

Self-ExperienceBorderline Personality DisorderIdentity DisturbanceAffective DisorderInterpersonal InstabilityEmbodimentPhenomenological PsychopathologyAetiology
Type
Chapter
Information
Time and Body
Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches
 , pp. 177 - 200
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, J. M., Chin, E. D., Kolisetty, A. P., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2012). The distinguishing characteristics of narrative identity in adults with features of borderline personality disorder: An empirical investigation. Journal of Personality Disorders, 26(4), 498–512. doi:10.1521/pedi.2012.26.4.498Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Bortolan, A. (2017). Affectivity and moral experience: An extended phenomenological account. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 16(3), 471–490. doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9468-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bortolan, A. (2019). Phenomenological psychopathology and autobiography. In Stanghellini, G., Broome, M. R., Fernandez, A. V., Fusar-Poli, P., Raballo, A., & Rosfort, R. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of phenomenological psychopathology (pp. 1053–1064). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bortolan, A. (2020). Narratively shaped emotions: The case of borderline personality disorder. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, 45(2), 212–230. doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhz037Google Scholar
Campos, J. J., Walle, E. A., Dahl, A., & Main, A. (2011). Reconceptualizing emotion regulation. Emotion Review, 3(1), 26–35. doi:10.1177/1754073910380975Google Scholar
Chanen, A. M., & Kaess, M. (2012). Developmental pathways to borderline personality disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports, 14(1), 45–53. doi:10.1007/s11920-011-0242-yGoogle Scholar
Coan, J. A., & Maresh, E. L. (2014). Social baseline theory and the social regulation of emotion. In Gross, J. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 221–236). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Colombetti, G., & Krueger, J. (2015). Scaffoldings of the affective mind. Philosophical Psychology, 28(8), 1157–1176. doi:10.1080/09515089.2014.976334Google Scholar
Crowe, M. (2004). Never good enough – Part 1: Shame or borderline personality disorder? Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(3), 327–334. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00732.xGoogle Scholar
Diamond, L. M., & Aspinwall, L. G. (2003). Emotion regulation across the life span: An integrative perspective emphasizing self-regulation, positive affect, and dyadic processes. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 125–156. doi:10.1023/A:1024521920068Google Scholar
Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Houben, M., Santangelo, P., Kleindienst, N., Tuerlinckx, F., Oravecz, Z., … Kuppens, P. (2015). Unraveling affective dysregulation in borderline personality disorder: A theoretical model and empirical evidence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(1), 186–198. doi:10.1037/abn0000021Google Scholar
Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Kuo, J., Kleindienst, N., Welch, S. S., Reisch, T., Reinhard, I., … Bohus, M. (2007). State affective instability in borderline personality disorder assessed by ambulatory monitoring. Psychological Medicine, 37, 961–970. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2006.04.014Google Scholar
Edwards, T. (2015). The BPD journals: A year in the life. San Francisco, CA: Blurb.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., & Allison, E. (2014). The role of mentalizing and epistemic trust in the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy, 51(3), 372–380. doi:10.1037/a0036505Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Luyten, P., & Allison, E. (2015). Epistemic petrification and the restoration of epistemic trust: A new conceptualization of borderline personality disorder and its psychosocial treatment. Journal of Personality Disorders, 29(5), 575–609. doi:10.1521/pedi.2015.29.5.575Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (2007). Playing with reality: IV. A theory of external reality rooted in intersubjectivity. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88, 917–937. doi:10.1516/4774-6173-241T-72Google Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2007). Fragmented selves: Temporality and identity in borderline personality disorder. Psychopathology, 40(6), 379–387. doi:10.1159/000106.468Google Scholar
Goldie, P. (2000). The emotions: A philosophical exploration. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldie, P. (2012). The mess inside: Narrative, emotion, and the mind. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1999). Emotion regulation: Past, present, future. Cognition & Emotion, 13(5), 551–573. doi:10.1080/026999399379186Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (2001). Emotion regulation in adulthood: Timing is everything. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(6), 214–219. doi:10.1111%2F1467-8721.00152Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (2014). Emotion regulation: Conceptual and empirical foundations. In Gross, J. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 3–20). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Gunderson, J. G., & Hoffman, P. D. (2016). Beyond borderline: True stories of recovery from borderline personality disorder. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.Google Scholar
Helm, B. W. (2001). Emotional reason: Deliberation, motivation, and the nature of value. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Helm, B. W. (2009a). Emotions as evaluative feelings. Emotion Review, 1(3), 248–255. doi:10.1177/1754073909103593Google Scholar
Helm, B. W. (2009b). Love, identification, and the emotions. American Philosophical Quarterly, 46(1), 39–59.Google Scholar
Herman, J. (1992/1997). Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Herman, J. L., Perry, J. C., & Van der Kolk, B. A. (1989). Childhood trauma in borderline personality disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 146(4), 490–495. doi:10.1176/ajp.146.4.490Google ScholarPubMed
Hobson, P. (2002). The cradle of thought. London, UK: Pan Macmillan.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Brown, J., Smailes, E. M., & Bernstein, D. P. (1999). Childhood maltreatment increases risk for personality disorders during early adulthood. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56(7), 600–606. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.56.7.600Google Scholar
Kappas, A. (2011). Emotion and regulation are one! Emotion Review, 3(1), 17–25. doi:10.1177/1754073910380971Google Scholar
Kreisman, J. J., & Straus, H. (2010). I hate you – don't leave me: Understanding the borderline personality. New York, NY: Perigree.Google Scholar
Leichsenring, F., Leibing, E., Kruse, J., New, A. S., & Leweke, F. (2011). Borderline personality disorder. The Lancet, 377(9759), 74–84. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61422-5Google Scholar
Lieb, K., Zanarini, M. C., Schmahl, C., Linehan, M. M., & Bohus, M. (2004). Borderline personality disorder. The Lancet, 364(9432), 453–461. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16770-6Google Scholar
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Pereg, D. (2003). Attachment theory and affect regulation: The dynamics, development, and cognitive consequences of attachment-related strategies. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 77–102. doi:10.1023/A:1024515519160Google Scholar
Nica, E. I., & Links, P. S. (2009). Affective instability in borderline personality disorder: Experience sampling findings. Current Psychiatry Reports, 11(1), 74–81. doi:10.1007/s11920-009-0012-2Google Scholar
Pazzagli, A., & Rossi Monti, M. (2000). Dysphoria and aloneness in borderline personality disorder. Psychopathology, 33(4), 220–226. doi:10.1159/000029147Google Scholar
Prinz, J. J. (2006). Is emotion a form of perception? Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 36(5), 137–160. doi:10.1353/cjp.2007.0035Google Scholar
Pugmire, D. (2005). Sound sentiments: Integrity in the emotions. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2008). Feelings of being: Phenomenology, psychiatry and the sense of reality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2015). Experiences of depression: A study in phenomenology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2017a). Grief and the unity of emotion. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 41(1), 154–174. doi:10.1111/misp.12071Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2017b). Real hallucinations: Psychiatric illness, intentionality, and the interpersonal world. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2019a). Emotional intentionality. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 85, 251–269. doi:10.1017/S1358246118000784CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2019b). Grief and phantom limbs: A phenomenological comparison. In Burns, T., Szanto, T., Salice, A., Doyon, M., & Dumont, A. A. (Eds.), The new yearbook for phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy. Vol. XVII (pp. 77–96). London, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reeck, C., Ames, D. R., & Ochsner, K. N. (2016). The social regulation of emotion: An integrative, cross-disciplinary model. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(1), 47–63. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.09.003Google Scholar
Reiland, R. (2004). Get me out of here. My recovery from borderline personality disorder. Center City, MN: Hazelden.Google Scholar
Roberts, R. C. (1988). What an emotion is: A sketch. The Philosophical Review, 97(2), 183–209. doi:10.2307/2185261Google Scholar
Rossi Monti, M., & D'Agostino, A. (2019). Dysphoria in borderline persons. In Stanghellini, G., Broome, M. R., Fernandez, A. V., Fusar-Poli, P., Raballo, A., & Rosfort, R. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of phenomenological psychopathology (pp. 827–838). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scheppes, G., Suri, G., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation and psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11, 379–405. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032814-112739Google Scholar
Slaby, J. (2008). Affective intentionality and the feeling body. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 7(4), 429–444. doi:10.1007/s11097-007-9083-xGoogle Scholar
Stanghellini, G., & Rosfort, R. (2013). Borderline depression: A desperate vitality. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 20(7–8), 153–177. Retrieved from www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/jcs/2013/00000020/F0020007/art00008Google Scholar
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 25–52. doi:10.2307/1166137Google Scholar
Thompson, R. A. (2014). Socialization of emotion and emotion regulation in the family. In Gross, J. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 173–186). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Varga, S., & Krueger, J. (2013). Background emotions, proximity and distributed emotion regulation. Review of Philosophy & Psychology, 4(2), 271–292. doi:10.1007/s13164-013-0134-7Google Scholar
Zanarini, M. C., Williams, A. A., Lewis, R. E., Reich, R. B., Vera, S. C., Marino, M. F., … & Frankenburg, F. R. (1997). Reported pathological childhood experiences associated with the development of borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1101–1106. doi:10.1176/ajp.154.8.1101Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×