A prototype of borderline personality organization

Rez-Bereich: This study was awarded the Hamburger Fellowship Persönlichkeitsstörungen 2006 by the Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Therapie von Persönlichkeitsstörungen (GePs) e. V. and the LBK Hamburg GmbH. The diagnosis of personality disorders is a challenging task for clinicians and researchers, as the appropriate treatment depends to a large degree on a well- founded diagnosis. Examined in this study is the classification of personality pathology according to Otto Kernberg's psychoanalytic theory of personality organization, which proposes a dimensional model and classifies personality according to levels of psychic structure. The Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO) was developed by Clarkin, Caligor, Stern and Kernberg (2004) as an outgrowth of Kernberg's Structural Interview and assesses the domains Identity, Primitive and Advanced Defenses, Reality Testing, Object Relations, Moral values and Aggression. Domain scores from the STIPO were used to generate a prototypical profile of Borderline Personality Organization (BPO), and its use in explaining variance in personality pathology across a sample of patients of different levels of pathology was examined. The STIPO-based BPO prototype was able to discriminate between clinically dissimilar groups and demonstrated good psychometric qualities. As the BPO prototype is based on domains from the Structured Interview of Personality Organization, this instrument is important to operationalize Kernberg's theory of personality, focusing on the construct of identity. The interview is described in detail and individual cases demonstrate the application of the method. The BPO prototype and STIPO are discussed as valuable tools for clinicians and researchers for the diagnosis of patients with personality pathology and for deriving corresponding treatment implications.