borderline personality disorder

noun

: a personality disorder that is marked by unstable, intense emotions and mood with symptoms including instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image, fear of abandonment, and impulsive or unpredictable behavior and that has an onset during adolescence or early adulthood

Like others with borderline personality disorder, she had intense and unstable relationships with people that veered from adoration to intense hatred and jealousy the moment she felt the merest slight.

—Richard A. Friedman

Borderline personality disorder afflicts an estimated 1.3 percent of U.S. adults.

—Bruce Bower

—abbreviation BPD

Examples of borderline personality disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Another study, published in 2015, assessed the effects of various DBT interventions on 99 women who had borderline personality disorder and experienced suicidality — all participants experienced reductions in frequency of self-harm and found reasons for living after a year of treatment. —Kristen Rogers, CNN, 30 Oct. 2024

Clinicians have, however, begun to adapt psychotherapies that have proved to be effective in other, related conditions, such as borderline personality disorder. —Diana Kwon, Scientific American, 1 Sep. 2023

After all, borderline personality disorder in men can present differently.3 Health recognizes that not everyone who is female was born with female reproductive organs and that not everyone who is male was born with male reproductive organs. —Sharon Kwon, Health, 19 Sep. 2024

Research is now shedding light on the misconceptions around conditions such as borderline personality disorder and narcissism. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American, 3 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

borderline personality disorder

noun

: a personality disorder that is marked by unstable, intense emotions and mood with symptoms including instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image, fear of abandonment, and impulsive or unpredictable behavior and that has an onset during adolescence or early adulthood

Borderline personality disorder afflicts an estimated 1.3 percent of U.S. adults.

—Bruce Bower

—abbreviation BPD