Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a type of disorder when person experiences periods of tension and mood instability in which behaviors and emotions do not match. According to biosocial theory, BPD results from increased emotional vulnerability and a threatening environment (Musser et al., 2018). The emotional intelligence of parents plays a role in shaping the disabling environment. The biosocial theory establishes that the causes of BPD are primarily due to relationships during adolescence. The most significant developmental factor is impaired emotion regulation, which causes individuals with BPD to be unable to relate their feelings to socially acceptable behavior (Musser et al., 2018). This may be because individuals with BPD have a low level of body awareness: people do not perceive bodily information, preferring to avoid it (Schmitz et al., 2021). In addition, BPD develops out of an inability to process traumatic childhood experiences (disabling environment) and move to a conscious way of life (Musser et al., 2018). This is why individuals with BPD lack the explicit body-consciousness connection that leads to socially transcendent behaviors.
In the two reviews I found, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the connection of the body and awareness of the individual. Both studies used many additional sources of information, which is essential for such reviews. Furthermore, I am surprised that the theory is still evolving, and the amount of data continues to grow. However, these two articles are insufficient to understand the other mechanisms of BPD development. Childhood trauma and an unfavorable environment lead a person to stop associating with the body that experienced the suffering and prefers to withdraw into denial and escape from the connection (Schmitz et al., 2021). Nevertheless, the question of what psychological determinants of character and personality type may influence the development of BPD has not been resolved.
References
Musser, N., Zalewski, M., Stepp, S., & Lewis, J. (2018). A systematic review of negative parenting practices predicting borderline personality disorder: Are we measuring biosocial theory’s ‘invalidating environment’? Clinical Psychology Review, 65, 1-16.
Schmitz, M., Bertsch, K., Löffler, A., Steinmann, S., Herpertz, S. C., & Bekrater-Bodmann, R. (2021). Body connection mediates the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 8(1), 17.