Borderline We-Space? The Phenomenology of the Background of Safety in Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric condition characterized by instability in identity, relationships, and affect. Individuals, with BPD typically lack a coherent sense of self, are highly sensitive to interpersonal stressors, experience intense fluctuations in mood, and frequently engage in impulsive and self-destructive behaviors. Although both empirical research and development of effective psychotherapy have evidently progressed over the past years, many aspects regarding the structure of experience and the life-world typical for persons with BPD are not yet fully understood. Somewhat surprisingly, phenomenological psychopathology has only recently started to pay more attention to the disorder. A comprehensive elaboration of the phenomenology of BPD is therefore still lacking. This article aimed to contribute to such a phenomenological understanding by focusing on what we think is an essential aspect that has yet not been sufficiently addressed: the background of safety. To clarify what this means, we depart from Sandler’s [<i>Int J Psychoan</i>. 1960;41:352–6] psychoanalytic concept and elaborate on it phenomenologically. This leads us to argue that the development of a background of safety requires a particular embodied presence of others, which, in turn, contributes to the constitution of a safe we-space, a shared and familiar environment providing a matrix for the experience of a stable world. However, even when established, the background of safety remains in need of a continuous reconfirmation through corresponding experiences within a sufficiently reliable and controllable environment. The background of safety is vulnerable and open to (interpersonal) disruptions like trauma or neglect. In BPD, we suggest 3 aspects regarding the phenomenology of the background of the safety need to be considered: first, typically, patients with BPD did not develop a robust background of safety in infancy; second, weakening of the background of safety gives rise to symptoms and dynamics typical for BPD; third, these symptoms and dynamics further undermine the possible development of a background of safety in adult life and thus gravitate toward a petrification of the borderline condition, a “stable instability.” To conclude, we examine whether this concept should be understood as a <i>trouble générateur</i> and, last, consider its clinical implications.

Personal Identity and Narrativity in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Phenomenological Reconfiguration

“…In our vocabulary, various episodic self-institutions succeed one another, which are not always coherent with one another, precisely because they have lost connection with this phenomenological basis of identity institution, namely the self-formation and sense formation. The identity instability that results from this disconnection from the self-formation could be amplified by a vulnerability of the background of safety, that is, a familiar environment constituted through development and providing a stability in the experience [52]. This perpetuated identity instability, and this stability within instability [53] leaves people with BPD struggling with a painful feeling of incoherence.…”

Space, Social Perception, and Mental Disorders: Phenomenological and Empirical Approaches

“…They argue that this could be achieved by implementing particular forms of open psychiatric spaces such as open-door approaches and open dialogue. • Van Duppen et al [19] centers on what the authors consider as an essential aspect of the experience of space in borderline personality disorder (BPD), namely, "the background of safety." The authors propose that subjects with BPD have difficulties developing such a background since they did not experience a constant space of safety in infancy.…”

“…Van Duppen et al [19] centers on what the authors consider as an essential aspect of the experience of space in borderline personality disorder (BPD), namely, “the background of safety.” The authors propose that subjects with BPD have difficulties developing such a background since they did not experience a constant space of safety in infancy. A weakening of the background of safety in the early stages of life gives rise, in turn, to symptoms and dynamics typical for BPD that further undermine the possible development of a background of safety in adult life.…”