Fragmented Selves: Temporality and Identity in BPD - Thomas Fuchs MD, PhD

[Depression = 72% of members]

Fragmented Selves: Temporality and Identity in Borderline Personality Disorder.

I was very glad to find this 2006 article

Abstract The concept of narrative identity implies a continuity of the personal past, present and future. This concept is essentially based on the capacity of persons to integrate contradictory aspects and tendencies into a coherent, overarching sense and view of themselves. In ‘mature’ neurotic disorders, this is only possible at the price of repression of important wishes and possibilities for personal development. Patients with borderline personality disorder lack the capacity to establish a coherent self-concept. Instead, they adopt what could be called a ‘post-modernist’ stance towards their life, switching from one present to the next and being totally identified with their present state of affect. Instead of repression, their means of defence consists in a temporal splitting of the self that excludes past and future as dimensions of object constancy, bonding, commitment, responsibility and guilt. The temporal fragmentation of the self avoids the necessity of tolerating the threatening ambiguity and uncertainty of interpersonal relationships. The price, however, consists in a chronic feeling of inner emptiness caused by the inability to integrate past and future into the present and thus to establish a coherent sense of identity. The paper outlines the con-cept of narrative identity and explores its disturbances in borderline personality disorder.  Finally, the increasing prevalence of these disorders is linked to the development of a mainly externally driven, fragmented character in post-modern society.

www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/zpm/psychatrie/fuchs/Fragmented-Selves.pdf

I have been involved romantically for three years with a man for whom this article would seem to have been written specifically! Working with my own therapist, I realized that he had a moderate case of Borderline Personality Disorder.

However, the coincidences with the article are astounding. Basically, for our whole relationship, the question of his fragmented identity and inability to commit (to relationships, identity, etc) or make choices decisively has been discussed under the guise of philosophy.

Whenever I would confront him about his problems and how they were affecting our relationship, he would escape addressing the personal and individual questions by abstracting everything up into the realm of the philosophical and sociological, as if the fragmentation or malaise of post-modern society (as the author lays out almost exactly in his article! Some of the similarity in insight and phrasing was uncanny!) somehow excused his own behavior. As if the fact that he was a "symptom of modern society" (his words) explained everything and meant he was off the hook and should just fatalistically accept his dysfunctional behavior, even though that obviously doesn't explain why HE specifically became that way (but lots of other people in society today aren't) or how he possibly could nevertheless change (to be like all of those of us who aren't!)

Most coincidentally, just before our relationship fell apart this time (it's happened before only for him to reappear later) he started getting into Nietzsche. Researching "Nietszche and Borderline Personality" is how I found the article, so it's interesting that these things all seem to have this correspondance.

In a way, he is a very strange case, and the article has been very relevant to me, given how explicitly our discourse regarding what I now see is his own personality disorder... .has revolved around questions of society as a whole, modernity and post-modernity, and even faith. I think he never has been able to have "faith" in the sense that it is used it at the end of your article, that existential or philosophical leap that is required to preserve continuity of self-identity over time (though religious faith has also been a major question for him).

Whether it is his own identity or relationships, he has just always fled from commitment. He is ambivalent about his own sexual identity in many ways. His autobiographical narrative is not terribly coherent or purpose-driven.

But fascinatingly he always has avoided directly discussing these personal issues by obfuscating them up into an abstract philosophical framework regarding society in many of the exact same terms as the article lays out! It's like he has been dancing around the revelation of his own problem, but also escaping facing it, by exploring all these corresponding social/philosophical issues that it mirrors.

He's obsessed with these questions, even, and seems to understand their personal relevance to his own situation. And yet, he also uses them to avoid facing his own issues. It's as if he thinks that simply philosophizing enough about the fragmentation or disembeddedness of modern society... .will somehow cure or ameliorate the problems of fragmentation in his own personality.

But obviously, that doesn't follow! It may be interesting to think about. It might be especially interesting for someone with BPD to realize and analyze all the ways in which our society as a whole tends towards a sort of "Borderline" lifestyle and values. One can see why a Borderline case would be particularly perceptive of such things, or particularly fascinated with these sorts of ideas, given how close to home they hit, given how much they reflect (or, rather, are reflected by) the situation in their own psyche. But in itself, ruminating about that doesn't address their problems, doesn't fix them, and can in fact seemingly serve as a "justification" for them to continue ignoring their own problems, as if feeling an affinity for certain trends in our society is enough to excuse the dysfunction on the personal individual level.

[UmbrellaBoy]

Fragmented Selves: Temporality and Identity in Borderline Personality Disorder.

I was very glad to find this 2006 article

Abstract The concept of narrative identity implies a continuity of the personal past, present and future. This concept is essentially based on the capacity of persons to integrate contradictory aspects and tendencies into a coherent, overarching sense and view of themselves. In ‘mature’ neurotic disorders, this is only possible at the price of repression of important wishes and possibilities for personal development. Patients with borderline personality disorder lack the capacity to establish a coherent self-concept. Instead, they adopt what could be called a ‘post-modernist’ stance towards their life, switching from one present to the next and being totally identified with their present state of affect. Instead of repression, their means of defence consists in a temporal splitting of the self that excludes past and future as dimensions of object constancy, bonding, commitment, responsibility and guilt. The temporal fragmentation of the self avoids the necessity of tolerating the threatening ambiguity and uncertainty of interpersonal relationships. The price, however, consists in a chronic feeling of inner emptiness caused by the inability to integrate past and future into the present and thus to establish a coherent sense of identity. The paper outlines the con-cept of narrative identity and explores its disturbances in borderline personality disorder.  Finally, the increasing prevalence of these disorders is linked to the development of a mainly externally driven, fragmented character in post-modern society.

www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/zpm/psychatrie/fuchs/Fragmented-Selves.pdf

I have been involved romantically for three years with a man for whom this article would seem to have been written specifically! Working with my own therapist, I realized that he had a moderate case of Borderline Personality Disorder.

However, the coincidences with the article are astounding. Basically, for our whole relationship, the question of his fragmented identity and inability to commit (to relationships, identity, etc) or make choices decisively has been discussed under the guise of philosophy.

Whenever I would confront him about his problems and how they were affecting our relationship, he would escape addressing the personal and individual questions by abstracting everything up into the realm of the philosophical and sociological, as if the fragmentation or malaise of post-modern society (as the author lays out almost exactly in his article! Some of the similarity in insight and phrasing was uncanny!) somehow excused his own behavior. As if the fact that he was a "symptom of modern society" (his words) explained everything and meant he was off the hook and should just fatalistically accept his dysfunctional behavior, even though that obviously doesn't explain why HE specifically became that way (but lots of other people in society today aren't) or how he possibly could nevertheless change (to be like all of those of us who aren't!)

Most coincidentally, just before our relationship fell apart this time (it's happened before only for him to reappear later) he started getting into Nietzsche. Researching "Nietszche and Borderline Personality" is how I found the article, so it's interesting that these things all seem to have this correspondance.

In a way, he is a very strange case, and the article has been very relevant to me, given how explicitly our discourse regarding what I now see is his own personality disorder... .has revolved around questions of society as a whole, modernity and post-modernity, and even faith. I think he never has been able to have "faith" in the sense that it is used it at the end of your article, that existential or philosophical leap that is required to preserve continuity of self-identity over time (though religious faith has also been a major question for him).

Whether it is his own identity or relationships, he has just always fled from commitment. He is ambivalent about his own sexual identity in many ways. His autobiographical narrative is not terribly coherent or purpose-driven.

But fascinatingly he always has avoided directly discussing these personal issues by obfuscating them up into an abstract philosophical framework regarding society in many of the exact same terms as the article lays out! It's like he has been dancing around the revelation of his own problem, but also escaping facing it, by exploring all these corresponding social/philosophical issues that it mirrors.

He's obsessed with these questions, even, and seems to understand their personal relevance to his own situation. And yet, he also uses them to avoid facing his own issues. It's as if he thinks that simply philosophizing enough about the fragmentation or disembeddedness of modern society... .will somehow cure or ameliorate the problems of fragmentation in his own personality.

But obviously, that doesn't follow! It may be interesting to think about. It might be especially interesting for someone with BPD to realize and analyze all the ways in which our society as a whole tends towards a sort of "Borderline" lifestyle and values. One can see why a Borderline case would be particularly perceptive of such things, or particularly fascinated with these sorts of ideas, given how close to home they hit, given how much they reflect (or, rather, are reflected by) the situation in their own psyche. But in itself, ruminating about that doesn't address their problems, doesn't fix them, and can in fact seemingly serve as a "justification" for them to continue ignoring their own problems, as if feeling an affinity for certain trends in our society is enough to excuse the dysfunction on the personal individual level.

[Learning_curve74]

WOW! Thanks for posting this article UmbrellaBoy! It was an incredible read. The conclusion drawn about a post-modern society being one characterized by narcissistic and borderline pathologies seems to be right on the money and scary indeed.

There is a lot to discuss in this article. Here is just one aspect from early in the article that may help some people find some understanding of their pwBPD:

Impulsivity and Affect Dysregulation

Wishes and impulses flare up and vanish again, driving the patients forward, but without coalescing to form a longterm, resolved and overarching will. In other words: borderline individuals lack the capacity to form enduring second-order volitions in the light of which present impulses could be evaluated and selected.

As a result, the patients are unable to draw on the experiences of the past in order to determine their own future by reflected decisions. They miss the experience of agency or authorship of their life. One could say that instead of projecting themselves into the future, they just stumble into it. Thus borderline individuals exhibit a characteristic temporal structure: they are only what they are experiencing at this moment, in an often intense and yet empty and flat present; for this present may only be experienced passively, not as the result of one’s own planning and will.

This seems to explain why pwBPD are impulsive and do things that are not in their own long-term interests. They literally cannot connect the dots that make up their life, and without a feeling of authorship of their individual narrative, they succumb to the momentary impulses which are intense, extreme, and liable to flip over to the other pole (love to hate for example).

On a personal level, it perfectly explains the "I cheated on you with him, but he doesn't mean anything to me" excuse for infidelity my exBPDgf pulled. (Which really is the excuse many cheaters use though not all cheaters have BPD.) At the moment we were discussing it, she really did not feel anything for this other man! And she doesn't feel like she had any control over her impulses anyhow (the second-order volition of not wanting to want another man), so in that context he really did not mean anything to her!

And on a deeper level, this can also explain why pwBPD are so resistant to therapy and often cease treatment. They cannot connect the dots and see the thread of progression over time, that they may be "getting better". Any momentary setback can be seen as proof that therapy and treatment do not work. My exBPDgf tried to change her life around to be with me -- she has been diagnosed BPD and knows -- but after a couple of months she gave up. I have no idea what the bump in the road was, maybe it was a number of different speed bumps but it's not important, only that it was enough to make her give up.

UmbrellaBoy, it sounds like your BPDex also felt he was a "victim of fate" as that is what pwBPD apparently experience in their mind. Because a pwBPD does not feel authorship of their own individual narrative, they basically take no responsibility for their chaotic interactions with people they are close to. It's like they are just watching everything happen to them, and they shrug their shoulders to it all just to play the victim again.

It's all very sad. But as a non, we don't have to succumb to the same type of thinking as a pwBPD. I refuse to be a vicitm or "just" a survivor. I am the author of my own story, I'll take the tragedies with the triumphs, and overall the story is a good one. 

[Ironmanrises]

Abstract The concept of narrative identity implies a continuity of the personal past, present and future. This concept is essentially based on the capacity of persons to integrate contradictory aspects and tendencies into a coherent, overarching sense and view of themselves. In ‘mature’ neurotic disorders, this is only possible at the price of repression of important wishes and possibilities for personal development. Patients with borderline personality disorder lack the capacity to establish a coherent self-concept. Instead, they adopt what could be called a ‘post-modernist’ stance towards their life, switching from one present to the next and being totally identified with their present state of affect. Instead of repression, their means of defence consists in a temporal splitting of the self that excludes past and future as dimensions of object constancy, bonding, commitment, responsibility and guilt. The temporal fragmentation of the self avoids the necessity of tolerating the threatening ambiguity and uncertainty of interpersonal relationships. The price, however, consists in a chronic feeling of inner emptiness caused by the inability to integrate past and future into the present and thus to establish a coherent sense of identity. The paper outlines the con-cept of narrative identity and explores its disturbances in borderline personality disorder.  Finally, the increasing prevalence of these disorders is linked to the development of a mainly externally driven, fragmented character in post-modern society.

www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/zpm/psychatrie/fuchs/Fragmented-Selves.pdf

Interesting article.

In bold.

That description is... .

Hell on earth.

[Reg]

Most interesting article indeed.  I have downloaded it as well to read it again.

It is confirming about everything I've experienced in my past relationship and explaining the why.

But even more, it was good to read something I'm saying myself since I've learned about borderline, that is that our whole western civilisation is becoming more and more borderline.

Think about it, if you take the features of BPD from the DSM IV, and project them on modern society as we know it, how borderlinish some of our behavior as a society has become.

Some "third world" country tribes have more values, respect, common sense, empathy, etc then we have... .

I'd even dare to say that we are desocialising and desperately are mirroring ourselves to fit in with society... .

[Ironmanrises]

That is scary.

Perhaps this narration from the movie "The Island of Dr. Moreau"(featuring Marlon Brando 1996 remake)... .makes sense in terms of all of this... .

"This is a true record of what I saw. I set it down only leaving out the longitude and latitude of the island, as a warning to all who would follow in Moreau's footsteps. Most times, I keep the memory far in the back of my mind, a distant cloud. But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor wholly man, but an unstable combination of both. As unstable as anything Moreau created. And I go... .in fear."... .

Makes you think.

[UmbrellaBoy]

UmbrellaBoy, it sounds like your BPDex also felt he was a "victim of fate" as that is what pwBPD apparently experience in their mind. Because a pwBPD does not feel authorship of their own individual narrative, they basically take no responsibility for their chaotic interactions with people they are close to. It's like they are just watching everything happen to them, and they shrug their shoulders to it all just to play the victim again.

Yes! That describes exactly what it felt like sometimes. He'd be all crying and acting as if all this stuff was just happening TO him, but I'd keep saying "Um, the only think 'happening to' you are your own choices! This is all in your hands!"

The ironic thing is that, when he left me and slipped back into his 'default' situation, he had the audacity to claim that this was an example of him being responsible/decisive finally. It wasn't. But it's amazing how he was able to appropriate my critiques (from before I knew he was BPD which is a very recent realization) and actually just work them into a self-justifying narrative in a way that apparently convinced him (but not me) that he was actually responding to those critiques, when really he was just very clever verbally at portraying "more of the same" as "changing."

In bold.

That description is... .

Hell on earth.

Mhm, quite literally I think.

It's funny, in our case, talk of hellfire did enter into it. He was on-again-off-again religious too, and to me the sort of self-enclosed fragmentation of identity and fear of love itself that I saw... .seemed to be quite literally the definition of Hell. And he knew it and was terrified, but still never really changed or got help.

[Bulgakov]

UmbrellaBoy, it sounds like your BPDex also felt he was a "victim of fate" as that is what pwBPD apparently experience in their mind. Because a pwBPD does not feel authorship of their own individual narrative, they basically take no responsibility for their chaotic interactions with people they are close to. It's like they are just watching everything happen to them, and they shrug their shoulders to it all just to play the victim again.

Wow. Mine is so into astrology that it is annoying. No relationship can escape somehow being analyzed as a good or bad connection based on astrological signs and narratives. It is like her religion. Everyone is born to be the way she reads them because of their sign. It all makes sense now. All that stuff is so subjective and I find it a bit funny that someone could bash religion and then believe fully in astrology. Hope I'm not hurting any feelings here.

My question is, do you all think this might be dangerous? I guess I know the answer to that one. Do you have similar experiences?

[musicfan42]

My BPD ex actually talked to me about how he felt like a misfit. He told me how he felt more comfortable around the disenfranchised than fully-functioning people or high functioning people. I actually understood that-odd/weird behaviors tend to be more tolerated/accepted in alternative/sub-cultures... there's less competitiveness and more of a community spirit. Borderlines struggle with feelings of emptiness so it's particularly important to them that they feel accepted by other people/validated by other people. Borderlines also struggle with identity issues so fitting into a community probably feels very validating for them... that they derive a temporary sense of self from it.

I think that it may be easier for borderlines to focus on issues at a macro level e.g. astrology, philosophy etc as opposed to issues at a micro level e.g. their own problems. Borderlines have very intense emotions and they have no idea how to deal with those emotions. I think that one has to be able to stay calm in order to solve a problem and borderlines struggle to do this so they end up having a lot of unresolved problems in their lives.

UmbrellaBoy-I've read that DBT says that borderlines are in a state of "unrelenting crisis"-that they tend to jump from one problem situation to another. DBT also says that they have "active passivity"-that they are active in getting other people to solve their problems for them. It basically means that borderlines approach life in a passive way/like playing the victim role really so it's not surprising that your ex complained that all these things were happening "to" him. There's a page here on the ":)ialectical Dilemmas" of DBT: www.blogs.psychcentral.com/dbt/2010/04/dialectical-behavior-therapy-dialectical-dilemma%E2%80%99s-and-BPD/

Here's an interest journal article on emotional hypochondriasis: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330360/pdf/25.pdf

[UmbrellaBoy]

Wow that emotional hypochondriasis one is really interesting to me because one minor symptom I noticed in my ex was REAL hypochondriasis.

In both of our two biggest crises (when the love triangle broke out two years ago, and our recent protracted break up) he's developed physical hypochondriasis. Feeling vaguely "unwell," fearing some minor eczema (probably from some allergy, he has a lot) was the sign of some fatal disease, terrified he had gotten HIV even though he is not high-risk in terms of behavior at all. Visiting several doctors for more opinions (some of whom told him his only real problem is the anxiety itself ). Maybe I'll post about this.

[Findingmysong723]

Very interesting and informative reads. Explains how hard it is for people with Borderline personality disorder and how they do deserve our empathy! However, we deserve empathy for trying to love a person with this disorder, because it breaks you up inside!

[UmbrellaBoy]

I actually emailed the author of this article and one of the things he said was:

What you describe in your friend is a form of denial or escape that is often found: Dealing with a deep personal problem in a generalized, philosophizing or scientific way, thus at the same time seeing, but not facing it (in fact, many psychiatrists choose their own personal problems or even disorders as their research topic, and they are certainly not the only profession to do so!). My paper points out that Borderline Problems are in fact related to general tendencies in our society, but of course this does not spare the labour of working on one's own problems ... .

It reminded me of that quote from Silence of the Lambs where Clarice says to Hannibal Lecter: "You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don't you—why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see? Maybe you're afraid to."

My BPD ex was so perceptive about society and culture and philosophy, and noticed things that probably directly related to his BPD... .but then could never personally introspect in the way I'm used to thinking, where you look at your own life and psyche in an utterly personal anecdotal way, with all its specificity and contingency and particularity.

Whenever you'd try to dig down into that, he'd abstract it up into the realm of sociology or politics or pop culture or philosophy. A question of "Why are you like this?" would be met with "We [modern people] are like this because... ." and there might be some very profound insight about some social trend

... .except "we" aren't ALL like this, and even if there is a connection between culture as a whole and the Borderline pathology, only a few people "reflect" it and there is a real question "Why you but not the other 98% of the population?" And that he wasn't very good at answering. "I'm sensitive, I guess" was the best I ever got, which is hardly an answer at all.

[happylogist]

Hi UmbrellaBoy,

It is a very interesting article indeed! Since I am trying to heal, I am noticing how many post-modern popular songs are describing BPD relationships. One of the recent examples that caught my attention and which resonates with the dynamics of BPD - co-dependent/caregiver relationship is Arctic Monkey's Love is a Laserquest, especially these lines are actually describing BPD traits:

"And do you still think love is a laserquest

Or do you take it all more seriously

I've tried to ask you this in some daydreams that I've had

But you're always busy being make-believe

And do you look into the mirror to remind yourself you're there

Or have somebody's good-night kisses got that covered?"

Which brings me to my ex uBPD lover - part of the way he expressed his emotions were by referring me to certain songs. In all situations he would find a song to play or send me a link. All the songs he played for me to express his feelings were always about love = pain = craziness... .Like "Bleeding love" or "Madness"... .The same way was his pain and disappointment about his relationship with his ex, again with referring me to certain songs for a better understanding ...

Well, yes, and it is true also about generalizations with a dash of science or philosophy as a way of escape from problems or avoid true intimacy... .Especially when we talked at the end of our relationship and whenever I expressed my upset with the way our relationship evolved, which was without any commitment or willingness from his side to be with me, but at the same time having me as a weird mixture of someone he claimed to love and me being his non-reciprocal friend, his response had very often the word "Others" when referring to a singular himself! Something like "you can't be sad because others are trying to find happiness in any form and situation it is available... ." or "stop blaming, happylogist, others!"... .  Interestingly he refereed to philosophy when talking about our sex - in particular in the notion of  "object - subject" relationship... .The intimacy in sex was "objectification" of a subject, himself or myself in the terms of the German philosophers