| Borderline Personality Disorder A pervasive pattern
of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked
impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as
indicated by five (or more) of the following:
- frantic efforts to
avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating
behavior covered in Criterion 5.
- a pattern of unstable
and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of
idealization and devaluation
- identity disturbance:
markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
- impulsivity in at least
two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse,
reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating
behavior covered in Criterion 5.
- recurrent suicidal
behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
- affective instability
due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or
anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
- chronic feelings of
emptiness
- inappropriate, intense
anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger,
recurrent physical fights)
- transient,
stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Washington, DC, 1994 |