An Evolutionary Approach to Emotional Difficulties in Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Abstract Borderline personality disorder (BPD) represents a pervasive personality pathology characterized by emotional dysregulation leading to signs and symptoms such as impulsivity, behavioral dysregulation, and interpersonal hypersensitivity. This chapter describes how emotions and emotional processes are central to borderline pathology and how current evolutionary accounts of emotions can shed light on the disorder. First, the authors provide a definition of BPD and its diagnostic criteria as reflected in the DSM-5, emphasizing the centrality of emotion, followed by an evolutionary explanation of emotions that contextualize evolutionary approaches to the emotional vulnerability and dysregulation characteristic of BPD. They then present attachment theory and life history theory as two middle-level explanations of BPD within the context of the DSM-5 definition and clinical formulations of borderline pathology. The chapter concludes with a summary of each approach and the potential they bring toward a clearer understanding of BPD and psychopathology in general.