Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder

An intimate, compassionate, and expansive portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder that rejects the conventional wisdom that this condition is untreatable, told by a psychologist who specializes in BPD

Mental illness is heavily stigmatized within our society, and within this already marginalized group, folks with BPD are deemed especially untreatable and hopeless. When, as a graduate student, Alex Kriss first began working as a therapist in the field, his supervisors warned him that borderline patients were manipulative, difficult, and had a tendancy to drop out of treatment. Yet, years later, when Kriss was establishing his private practice and a borderline patient known as Ana came to his office, he felt compelled to try to help her, despite all of the warnings he'd heard.

Borderline is the story of his work with Ana--how his successes with her led him to open his doors to other BPD patients and advocate for them. Borderline is also the story of the disorder itself: Kriss traces accounts of the condition going back to antiquity, showing how this disease has been known by many names over the millennia, most of them gendered: possession, hysteria, witchcraft, moral insanity. All referred to a person--usually a woman--whose behavior and personality were seen as fractured, unstable, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. Kriss guides us through this history up through the emergence of psychotherapy, the development of the modern diagnosis, and attitudes toward treatment today.

Author: Alexander Kriss
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 04/30/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.1lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780807007815


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/15/2024
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2024

About the Author
Alexander Kriss, Ph.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, Director of the Fordham Community Mental Health Clinic, and author of The Gaming Mind: A New Psychology of Videogames and the Power of Play. His private psychotherapy practice is based in Sleepy Hollow, NY.