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Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents pp 9–16Cite as

A History of Research on Borderline Personality Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence

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Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) was first described 75 years ago (Stern, 1938), but only became accepted in the classification of mental disorders decades later (American Psychiatric Association, 1980); but it was at that point that research on the disorder took off. Formal investigation of BPD also led to a reformulation of its nature, moving from a condition lying on a “border” between neurosis and psychosis to a personality disorder rooted in underlying traits but associated with prominent symptoms. Thus BPD emerges from complex and interactive biological and psychosocial risk factors (Crowell, Beauchaine, & Linehan, 2009; Paris, 2007). There is no single explanation for its cause, and risks are not the same in all patients. The pathways to BPD demonstrate equifinality, with different pathways capable of leading to the same outcome (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry, McGill University, SMBD-Jewish General Hospital, 4333 Cote-Sainte-Catherine Road, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3T 1E4

    Joel Paris

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Correspondence to Joel Paris .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Carla Sharp

  2. Dept. Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Jennifer L. Tackett

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Paris, J. (2014). A History of Research on Borderline Personality Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence. In: Sharp, C., Tackett, J. (eds) Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0591-1_2

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