Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T21:52:02.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Personality disorder and the mental representation of early social experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Matthew Patrick ,
R. Peter Hobson ,
David Castle ,
Robert Howard  and
Barbara Maughan
Matthew Patrick*
Affiliation:
Developmental Psychopathology Research Unit, Tavistock Clinic, London
R. Peter Hobson
Affiliation:
Developmental Psychopathology Research Unit, Tavistock Clinic, London
David Castle
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Robert Howard
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Barbara Maughan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. Matthew Patrick and Professor R. Peter Hobson, DPRU, Tavistock Clinic, 120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA, England.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Controversy surrounds the role of early social experience in the development of personality disorder. In particular, little is known of the means by which continuities from infancy through adulthood might be mediated. One suggestion is that a person's mental representations of relations between him- or herself and other people, either in the form of “internal working models” or “internal object relations,” provide the essential link. We report on an investigation of this issue in which we focused on the formal qualities of accounts of childhood offered by adults who were drawn from two contrasting clinical groups; borderline personality disorder and dysthymia. The results lend support to the claims made by attachment theory and the object relations school of psychoanalysis, that at least in certain groups of individuals, adults' modes of representing early experience are intimately related to styles of interpersonal functioning. More specifically, the form of interpersonal Psychopathology characteristic of borderline personality disorder may be associated with enmeshed and unresolved patterns of responding to the Adult Attachment Interview of George, Kaplan, and Main (1985) and with reports of low maternal care and high maternal overprotection on the Parental Bonding Instrument of Parker, Tupling, and Brown (1979).

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Spring 1994 , pp. 375 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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

Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M., & Wittig, B. (1969). Attachment and exploratory behaviour of one-year-olds in a Strange Situation. In Foss, B. (Ed.), Determinants of infant behaviour (Vol. 4, pp. 111–136). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Beck, A. (1984). The Beck Depression Inventory. In Williams, M. (Ed.), The psychological treatment of depression: A guide to the theory and practice of cognitive behavioral therapy. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Bell, M., Billington, R., & Cicchetti, D. (1988). Do object relations deficits distinguish BPD from other diagnostic groups? Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 511–516.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bemporad, J., Smith, H., Hanson, C., & Cicchetti, D. (1982). Borderline syndromes in childhood: Criteria for diagnosis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 596–602.Google ScholarPubMed
Bion, W. (1962). Learning from experience. In Seven servants: Four works by Wilfred R. Bion (pp. 1–111). New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Bion, W. (1967). A theory of thinking. In Second thoughts (pp. 110–119). London: Heinemann.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation: Anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bradley, S. (1979). The relationship of early maternal separation to borderline personality in children and adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 424–426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 209, 50(1–2), 3–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretherton, I. (1987). New perspectives on attachment relations: Security, communication, and internal working models. In Osofsky, J. (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (2nd ed., pp. 1061–1100). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I. (1992, 10). Internal working models: Cognitive and affective aspects of attachment representations. Paper presented at the Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology: Emotion, Cognition and Representation,Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Brown, G., & Harris, T. (1978). Social origins of depression. A study of psychiatric disorder in women. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Brown, G., Harris, T., & Bifulco, A. (1986). Long-term effects of early loss of parent. In Rutter, M., Izard, C., & Read, P. (Eds.), Depression in young people: Developmental and clinical perspectives (pp. 251–296). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bryer, J., Nelson, B., Miller, J., & Krol, P. (1987). Childhood sexual and physical abuse as factors in adult psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 1426–1436.Google ScholarPubMed
Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1989). Finding order in disorganization: Lessons from research on maltreated infants' attachments to their caregivers. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 494–528). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (1990). Perspectives on the interface between normal and a typical development. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 329–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (in press). Developmental theory: Lessons from the study of risk and psychopathology. In Matthysse, S., Levy, D., Kagan, J., & Benes, F. (Eds.), Psychopathology: The evolving science of mental disorder. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Cummings, M., Greenberg, M., & Marvin, R. (1990). An organizational perspective on attachment theory beyond infancy: Implications for theory, measurement, and research. In Greenberg, M., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 3–49). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Olsen, K. (1990). Borderline disorders of childhood. In Lewis, M. & Miller, S. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychopathology (pp. 355–370). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarkin, J., Widiger, T., Frances, A., Hunt, S., & Gilmore, M. (1983). Prototypic typology and the borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 92, 263–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craik, K. (1943). The nature of explanation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crowell, J., & Feldman, S. (1988). Mothers' internal models of relationships and children's behavioral and developmental status: A study of mother-child interaction. Child Development, 59, 1273–1285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K., Bates, J., & Pettit, G. (1990). Mechanisms in the cycle of violence. Science, 250, 1678–1683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldmann, R., & Guttman, H. (1984). Families of borderline patients: Literal-minded parents, borderline parents, and parental protectiveness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 1392–1396.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, M., Moran, G., Steele, H., & Higgitt, A. (1991). The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 13, 200–216.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, H., & Steele, M. (1991). Maternal representations of attachment during pregnancy predict the organisation of infant-mother attachment at one year of age. Child Development, 62, 891–905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1985). The Attachment Interview for Adults. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. (1983). Personality disorders in adults predisposing to minor depressive disorders. In Russel, G. & Hersov, L. (Eds.), Handbook of psychiatry (Vol. 4, pp. 194–198). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J., & Mitchell, S. (1983). Object relations in psychoanalytic theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, K., Fremmer-Bombik, E., Rudolph, J., & Grossmann, K. (1987, 01). Maternal attachment representations as related to patterns of infant-mother-attachment and maternal care during the first year. Paper presented at the Conference on Intra-familial Relationships,Cambridge.Google Scholar
Herman, J., Perry, J., & Van Der Kolk, B. (1989). Childhood trauma in borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 490–495.Google ScholarPubMed
Kahn, J., & Wright, S. (1980). Human growth and the development of personality (3rd ed.). London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kernberg, O. (1976). Object relations theory and clinical psychoanalysis. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Kobak, R., & Sceery, A. (1988). Attachment in late adolescence: Working models, affect regulation, and representations of self and others. Child Development, 59, 135–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loranger, A., Oldham, J., & Tulis, E. (1982). Familial transmission of DSM-III borderline personality disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 795–799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynch, M., & Cicchetti, D. (1991). Patterns of relatedness in maltreated and nonmaltreated children: Connections among multiple representational models. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 207–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinnon, A., Henderson, A., & Andrews, G. (1991). The Parental Bonding Instrument: A measure of perceived or actual parental behaviour? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 83, 153–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Main, M. (1991). Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, and singular (coherent) vs. multiple (incoherent) models of attachment: Findings and directions for future research. In Marris, P., Stevenson-Hinde, J., & Parkes, C. (Eds.), Attachment across the life cycle (pp. 127–159). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (1984). Predicting rejection of her infant from mother's representation of her own experience: Implications for the abuses-abusing intergenerational cycle. Child Abuse and Neglect, 8, 203–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (1991). Adult attachment rating and classification system. Unpublished scoring manual. Version 5.0. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Hesse, E. (1990). Parents' unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: Is frightened and/or frightening parental behaviour the linking mechanism? In Greenberg, M., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 161–182). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2), 66–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrae, R., & Costa, P. (1988). Recalled parent-child relations and adult personality. Journal of Personality, 56, 417–434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melges, F., & Swartz, M. (1989). Oscillations of attachment in borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1115–1120.Google ScholarPubMed
Nigg, J., Silk, K., Westen, D., Lohr, N., Gold, L., Goodrich, S., & Ogata, S. (1991). Object representations in the early memories of sexually abused borderline patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 864–869.Google ScholarPubMed
Ogden, T. (1990). The matrix of the mind. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1981). Parental reports of depressives. Journal of Affective Disorders, 3, 131–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. (1983). Parental overprotection: A risk factor in psycho-social development. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1986). Validating an experiential measure of parental style: The use of a twin sample. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 73, 202–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G., Kiloh, L., & Hayward, L. (1987). Parental representations of neurotic and endogenous depressives. Journal of Affective Disorders, 13, 75–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G., Tupling, H., & Brown, L. (1979). A Parental Bonding Instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Registrar General. (1965). Classification of occupations. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1987). Temperament, personality and personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 443–458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1989). Intergenerational continuities and discontinuities in serious parenting difficulties. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and con-sequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 317–348). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulz, P., Schulz, S., Goldberg, S., Prakesh, E., Resnick, R., & Friedel, R. (1986). Diagnoses of the relatives of schizotypal outpatients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders, 174, 457–463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schulz, P., Soloff, P., Kelly, T., Morgenstern, M., Di-Franco, R., & Schulz, S. (1989). A family history of borderline subtypes. Journal of Personality Disorders, 3, 217–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, J., Pinkham, L., Horvath, T., Coccara, E., Klar, H., Schear, S., Apter, S., Davidson, M., Mohs, R., & Siever, L. (1991). Affective and impulsive personality disorder traits in the relatives of patients with borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1378–1385.Google ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. (1986). Appraisal: Bowlby's contribution to psychoanalytic theory and developmental psychology; attachment: Separation: Loss. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 841–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, H. (1991). Adult personality characteristics and family relationships: The development and validation of an interview-based assessment. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, London.Google Scholar
Stuart, J., Westen, D., Lohr, N., Benjamin, J., Becker, S., Vorus, N., & Silk, K. (1990). Object relations in borderlines, major depressives and normals: Analysis of Rorschach human figure responses. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 296–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westen, D., Lohr, N., Silk, K., Gold, L., & Kerber, K. (1990). Object relations and social cognition in borderlines, depressives and normals: A TAT analysis. Psychological Assessment, 2, 355–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization. (1978). International classification of diseases. Manual of the international statistical classification of diseases (ICD-9). Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
Zanarini, M., Gunderson, J., Marino, M., Schwartz, E., & Frankenburg, F. (1989). Childhood experiences of borderline patients. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 30, 18–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zweig-Frank, H., & Paris, J. (1991). Parents' emotional neglect and overprotection according to recollections of patients with borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 648–651.Google ScholarPubMed