Within the last decade, the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in women has become a fixture in mental health circles. It has been suggested that the increase in such BPD diagnoses in women has its genesis in the revisions of the diagnostic code. Specifically, in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) category, the definition of the term borderline has been resculpted to resemble that of the affective disorders, which has resulted in a diffusion of the "border" between psychosis and neurosis from which the disorder is named. BPD is conceptualized to a substantial degree in terms of maladaptive interpersonal behavior. The presence of significant, intense, disharmonious relationships is among the most useful criteria in identifying individuals with BPD. Research has indicated that individuals with BPD have more hostile representations of significant relationships and seem to have a more insecure attachment style.
Designations of normality and pathology have their origins not only in biological and psychiatric circles but also in sociocultural contexts. The characterization of BPD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders reflects a view that the individual experiencing borderline symptoms had a problematic early mother-child relationship resulting in the arrest of healthy boundary development. According to this view, the result is that an individual with BPD has an intense and irrational fear of abandonment, resulting in severe deformation of character. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in contrast, is one of only a few diagnoses in the DSM-IV whose symptoms are attributed to situational causes alone. This more favorable language has made PTSD the diagnosis of choice with gender-sensitive counselors, who favor this "non-blaming" label and see it as a means of acknowledging the environmental origins of psychological distress faced primarily by women. Conversely, BPD, which is defined in sweeping language and using broad categories, has acquired a pejorative connotation...
