Etiological Significance of Associations Between Childhood Trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder: Conceptual and Clinical Implications

Numerous studies over the past decade have pointed to the frequent occurrence of trauma and neglect in the childhood experience of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Advancing research on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Dissociative Disorders offers further insight into understanding shared clinical phenomena with BPD. Drawing upon attachment theory, models of learned helplessness, and early primate deprivation, empirical, theoretical and clinical data are integrated to conceptualize the role of trauma and neglect in the etiology of BPD.