Borderline personality disorders: the central role of emotional dysregulation

Abstract

Emotional dysregulation is considered as a core feature of borderline personality disorders. Emotional dysregulation can express itself both as emotional instability (i.e. an inability to modulate affects than can become uncontrolled) or in terms of poor emotional awareness (i.e. emotional numbing, alexithymic features). Whereas the first dimension is closely related to symptoms, such as impulsivity, suicidal behaviours or inappropriate anger, the latter can be associated with dissociative experiences and chronic feeling of emptiness. Although both dimensions have been related to negative experiences during childhood, however, little is known about the specific developmental pathways leading to emotional instability or emotional awareness in borderline adolescents. In this presentation, we will show some data concerning the specific traumatic pathways observed in a sample of borderline adolescents issued from the European Network on borderline personality disorders.