Consumer perspectives on personal recovery and borderline personality disorder
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-09-2016-0043 |
| Date | 06 November 2017 |
| Published date | 06 November 2017 |
| Pages | 350-359 |
| Author | Fiona Donald,Cameron Duff,Jillian Broadbear,Sathya Rao,Katherine Lawrence |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Mental health education |
Consumer perspectives on
personal recovery and
borderline personality disorder
Fiona Donald, Cameron Duff, Jillian Broadbear, Sathya Rao and Katherine Lawrence
Abstract
Purpose –Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex condition characterized by a number of
psychosocial difficulties that typically involve considerable suffering for individuals with the condition.
Recovery from BPD may involve specific processes such as work on how the self is perceived by the
individual with BPD and his or her relationships which differ from those common to recovery from other
mental health conditions. The details of the processes that may best promote changes within the self and
relationships are yet to be established. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach –In total,17 consumers from a specialist BPD service wereinterviewed to
identify factors they have experienced that contribute to recovery from BPD. Thematic analysis within a
grounded theoryframework was used to understand key themeswithin the interview data. The emphasiswas
on specific conditions of change rather than the more globalgoals for recovery suggested byrecent models.
Findings –Key themes identified included five conditions of change: support from others; accepting the
need for change; working on trauma without blaming oneself; curiosity about oneself; and reflecting on one’s
behavior. To apply these conditions of change more broadly, clinicians working in the BPD field need to
support processes that promote BPD-specific recovery identified by consumers rather than focusing
exclusively on the more general recovery principles previously identified within the literature.
Originality/value –The specific factors identified by consumers as supporting recovery in BPD are
significant because they involve specific skills or attitudes rather than aspirations or goals. These specific skills
may be constructively supported in clinical practice.
Keywords Relationships, Borderline personality disorder, Recovery, Self
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The concept of personal recovery is well established in the literature, however its relevance to
personality disorders including Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is just beginning to be
explored. To date, the majority of the recovery literature has focused on mental state disorders
such as schizophrenia. Recent models of recovery such as connectedness, hope, identity,
meaning, empowerment (CHIME) are based on this existing literature, but their relevance to the
experiences of individuals in recovery from BPD is yet to be established (Bird et al., 2014). CHIME
may fit well with the experiences of individuals with personality disorder but this has not yet been
empirically established. There is broad agreement that exploration of the experiences of diverse
groups, including individuals with personality disorder, will enhance understandings of recovery
and improve the utility of existing recovery models (Leamy et al., 2011). This is especially
important in the case of personality disorder, given that much of the existing recovery literature
has involved samples of individuals with mental state disorders rather than personality disorder a
consequence of this is that models such as CHIME may offer limited insight into the specific
processes that support personal recovery for individuals with personality disorder. CHIME may
provide important aspirational goals for recovery that generalize across diverse groups, however
further exploration encompassing the experiences of individuals from these diverse groups may
Received 6 September 2016
Revised 5 January 2017
25 July 2017
Accepted 26 July 2017
The authors wish to acknowledge
the contribution of
Dr J. Sabura Allen to the early
stages of this research project.
Fiona Donald is based at
School of Psychological
Sciences, Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia.
Cameron Duff is based at
Centre for People Organisation
and Work, RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia.
Jillian Broadbear is based at
Spectrum –Statewide Service
for Personality Disorder,
Fitzroy, Australia.
Sathya Rao is the Clinical
Director at Spectrum,
Personality Disorder Service for
Victoria, Fitzroy, Australia.
Katherine Lawrence is based at
School of Psychological
Sciences, Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia.
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THE JOURNAL OF MENTALHEALTH TRAINING, EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
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VOL. 12 NO. 6 2017, pp.350-359, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1755-6228 DOI 10.1108/JMHTEP-09-2016-0043
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