Borderline Personality Disorder: New Reasons for Hope

Francis Mark Mondimore · Patrick Kelly

Dec 2011 · JHU Press

About this ebook

Borderline personality disorder is a severe and complex psychiatric condition that, until recently, many considered nearly untreatable. But this optimistic guide to BPD provides information that will bring newfound hope to those who have this painful disorder, and to their family and friends.

People with borderline personality disorder have problems coping with almost everything, and therefore anything can provoke them to impulsive actions, angry outbursts, and self-destructive behaviors. Their personal relationships are simultaneously overly dependent and strained, if not openly hostile, and frequently explosive. Incorporating the latest research and thinking on the disorder, Johns Hopkins psychiatrists Francis Mark Mondimore and Patrick Kelly conceptualize it in an original way. They explain that symptoms are the result of biological and behavioral problems, extremes of temperament, and impaired psychological coping, all of which may have a relationship with traumatic life events.

The authors advocate a therapeutic approach incorporating compassion and optimism in the face of what is often a tumultuous disease. With proper treatment, people with borderline personality disorder can enjoy long remissions and improved quality of life.

Ratings and reviews

Finally, a book written for the person with this horrific disorder. There is so much published for those who are in relationships, or who are recovering from a relationship, with persons with this diagnosis. This book is a fine balance between clinical knowledge, empathy, and help for the person with BPD. It does not flow quite as well as I would like; lots of interjections of stories to illustrate the struggles and pain felt both by the person with the disorder and those in their lives. But it is not a book about DBT or CBT. It is not a book about how to survive a relationship with someone with BPD. It is a well rounded look into the sometimes torturous life events that anyone touched by this disorder might experience. It delves into a very supportive look at steps to coping, healing, living. It even provides scenarios of people who have gone into remission, giving hope to those feeling imprisoned by a disorder that was never of their choosing.

About the author

Francis Mark Mondimore, M.D., is a psychiatrist and member of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His books include Depression, the Mood Disease; Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families; and Adolescent Depression: A Guide for Parents, all published by Johns Hopkins. Patrick Kelly, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and the director of pediatric psychosomatic medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research interests include borderline personality disorder development in children.