Borderline Personality Disorder is usually framed as the result of trauma: a broken attachment system, a damaged patient reacting to early wounds. This is inclomplete. Borderline traits persist not because they are purely pathological, but because, in many contexts, they are functionally effective. This epsiode goes into the problem of the "invalidation environment" theory of Marsha Linehan, and the more plausible interpretaion of what makes this personality pathology.

For ad-free episodes of the Psychobabble Podcast, subscribe on Substack:

https://hannahspier.substack.com/p/66-how-borderline-traits-develop