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The structural interview method for diagnosing borderline disorders: A critique

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Abstract

The authors discuss difficulties in the assumptions that underlie Kernberg's Structural Interview method for diagnosing borderline personality organization and demonstrate methodological limitations in the studies that have reported results from its use. Further data analysis leads to the conclusion that, in the population studied, the Structural Interview diagnosis of borderline personality disorders is essentially equivalent to the clinical diagnosis of the presence of any personality disorder. A predictive formula to determine the presence or absence of clinically diagnosed personality disorder is derived using logistic regression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, the Yale University School of Medicine, USA

    James Reich M.D. (a postdoctoral fellow in psychosocial epidemiology)

  2. Cornell University Medical College, USA

    Allen Frances M.D. (an associate professor of psychiatry)

Authors
  1. James Reich M.D.
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  2. Allen Frances M.D.
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Additional information

This work was supported in part by a postdoctoral training fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health, Center for Epidemiology Studies, Grant #5T32 MH 14325 and by the Yale Mental Health Clinical Research Center (MHCRC), National Institute of Mental Health, Grant #MH30929.

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Reich, J., Frances, A. The structural interview method for diagnosing borderline disorders: A critique. Psych Quart 56, 229–235 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065014

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065014

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