Autobiographical memories of interpersonal trust in borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Background: Establishing and maintaining interpersonal trust is often difficult for patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). How we trust is influenced by prior trust experiences. Methods: For the investigation of trust experiences, autobiographical memories of n = 36 patients with BPD and n = 99 non-clinical controls were examined. Trust objects and interaction partners, emotional valence, perceived relevance and memory specificity were analyzed. Results: Content analyses revealed that patients with BPD recalled mostly situations in which their trust was failed by family members or romantic partners. In addition, patients with BPD considered memories with trust and mistrust more relevant for their current lives than the control group. Our results correspond with findings that BPD patients have difficulties trusting close others as well as with theoretical assumptions about deficits in mentalizing and epistemic trust in patients with BPD. Conclusion: In conclusion, our findings should encourage clinical practitioners to address trust deficits towards close others, as well as omniscient negative memory retrieval and interpretation biases which might influence current trust behavior.

Development of a Structured Interview to Explore Interpersonal Schema of Older Adults Living Alone Based on Autobiographical Memory

“…It is known that SDM for interpersonal conflict reflects the interpersonal self-image that individuals have for themselves, and also serves as a manual for coping in relationships with others, whether it is positive or negative [ 26 , 41 ]. For instance, researches examining the memory of patients with Borderline personality disorder (BPD) have discovered that patients frequently recall SDM for failed trust by family members or romantic partners [ 49 ], and that they recall negative social information much better [ 50 , 51 ]. These characteristics of memories seem to eventually serve as a manual for violent and unstable interpersonal behaviors of BPD patients.…”

Narrative identity characteristics and personality pathology: An exploration of associations from a dimensional and categorical perspective in a clinical sample of youth.

“…Community youth with categorical BPD or antisocial personality disorders (ASPD) characteristics seem to narrate about situations with a more negative affective valence than youth without these characteristics (Vanderveren et al, 2021). Moreover, adult patients with BPD appear to narrate about life events more negatively than adults without this classification (Botsford & Renneberg, 2020;Lind, Vanwoerden, et al, 2020). However, adult patients with ASPD narrated about negative memories equally often as they did about neutral or positive memories (Lavallee et al, 2020).…”

Contemporary psychological perspectives of personality disorders

“…rejected, abandoned) [26]. Two recent studies showed how borderline patients tend to recall and consider their autobiographical memories about rejection [27] and interpersonal trust [28 ▪▪ ], as more important for their ongoing lives than nonclinical controls.…”

“…As people with personality disorders often have problems in interpersonal relationships, the question arises whether they can gain trust in these relationships. Botsford et al [28 ▪▪ ] investigated autobiographical memories of interpersonal trust in BPD patients and in the nonclinical population and concluded that BPD patients are more likely to recall situations (autobiographical memories) in which they were betrayed than those in which their trust was justified. However, in the nonclinical population, the situation involving benevolence is more often remembered [28 ▪▪ ].…”

“…Botsford et al [28 ▪▪ ] investigated autobiographical memories of interpersonal trust in BPD patients and in the nonclinical population and concluded that BPD patients are more likely to recall situations (autobiographical memories) in which they were betrayed than those in which their trust was justified. However, in the nonclinical population, the situation involving benevolence is more often remembered [28 ▪▪ ]. Recent research suggests that in case of personality disorders, specifically BPD in these studies, defensive splitting affects their interpersonal relationships in extreme ways: if their partner shows a commitment greater than they expected the person will be instantly idealized, however if they do not the extreme devaluation of the partner comes immediately [32].…”