Child maltreatment, personality vulnerability, and the development of borderline experience

INTRODUCTION: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental disorder characterized by an intense and pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships and identity (Leichsenring et al., 2011; Skodol et al., 2002). It is widely recognized as child maltreatment is a robust predictor of later borderline personality pathology (Zanarini et al., 1997; Infurna et al., 2014). The considerable heterogeneity among patients with BPD makes the psychological assessment and comprehension highly complex (Eaton et al., 2011). Nevertheless, significant progresses were achieved using a dimensional perspective (Fossati et al., 2014), able to highlight the “subjective experience of BP…