Women and Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Stories

by Janet Wirth-Cauchon

At the beginning of the twentieth century, “hysteria” was a medical or psychiatric diagnosis applied primarily to women. In fact, the term itself comes from the Greek, meaning “wandering womb.” We have since learned, however, that this diagnosis evolved from certain assumptions about women’s social roles and mental characteristics, and is no longer in use.

The modern equivalent of hysteria, however, may be borderline personality disorder, defined as “a pervasive pattern of instability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and mood, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.” This diagnosis is applied to women so much more often than to men that feminists have begun to raise important questions about the social, cultural, and even the medical assumptions underlying this “illness.” Women are said to be “unstable” when they may be trying to reconcile often contradictory and conflicting social expectations.

In Women and Borderline Personality Disorder , Janet Wirth-Cauchon presents a feminist cultural analysis of the notions of “unstable” selfhood found in case narratives of women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. This exploration of contemporary post-Freudian psychoanalytic notions of the self as they apply to women’s identity conflicts is an important contribution to the literature on social constructions of mental illness in women and feminist critiques of psychiatry in general.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Health, Feminism

235 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book (especially for a random secondhand find)! A little bit older but still brings up a lot of important points, bringing a sociological and feminist perspective to BPD and psychoanalysis as a treatment methodology. For example, mentions of Foucault, Descartes and Simon de Beauvoir! Was very thought provoking for me, especially since it drew on a lot of information from my previous psychology and sociology classes on mental illness and feminism.

[Jorun Bork · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some passages were very interesting, other arguments seem to rely too heavily on the Borderline stereotype. But maybe that's because the book is quite old in the context of BPD research. The language is very academic, so having a background in academia and having read Freud and his hysteria research definitely helps.

[Shhhtevie St. Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting if you want to read an academic feminist interpretive analysis of borderline personality within the category of psychoanalysis and psychiarty.