Metacognitive dysfunction in borderline personality disorder

Abstract

In Personality Disorders the capacities of understanding and regulating mental states can be compromised. The different ways in which this compromised situation takes place cause different profiles of the metacognitive deficit. In this article we discuss the profile of the metacognitive malfunctioning in Borderline Personality Disorder (B.P.D.), based upon literature and clinical examples, which were taken from transcribed sessions. We sustain that this profile is characterized by a deficit of the integration capacity, a deficit in the capacity of differentiating between representation and reality, and a deficit in the mastery capacity and the capacity of regulation of the emotional states. Besides that, the relationship between metacognitive deficits and the influence each of them exercise on different symptoms of the disorder are discussed.