borderline personality disorder

noun

: a personality disorder that is marked by unstable, intense emotions and mood with symptoms including instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image, fear of abandonment, and impulsive or unpredictable behavior and that has an onset during adolescence or early adulthood

Like others with borderline personality disorder, she had intense and unstable relationships with people that veered from adoration to intense hatred and jealousy the moment she felt the merest slight.

—Richard A. Friedman

Borderline personality disorder afflicts an estimated 1.3 percent of U.S. adults.

—Bruce Bower

—abbreviation BPD

Examples of borderline personality disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, Bianca struggled to make connections with other teens. —Stephanie Nolasco, Fox News, 16 June 2024

Ryder played Kaysen, an 18-year-old girl with borderline personality disorder who is sent to a local psychiatric hospital. —Zack Sharf, Variety, 7 May 2024

If Gagne’s sociopathy falls outside DSM diagnoses, borderline personality disorder cuts across them. —Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 6 May 2024

Sparhawk, who was diagnosed with severe A.D.H.D. and borderline personality disorder in his late thirties, now believes that his father had similar problems. —Justin Taylor, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

borderline personality disorder

noun

: a personality disorder that is marked by unstable, intense emotions and mood with symptoms including instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image, fear of abandonment, and impulsive or unpredictable behavior and that has an onset during adolescence or early adulthood

Borderline personality disorder afflicts an estimated 1.3 percent of U.S. adults.

—Bruce Bower

—abbreviation BPD