When she was bad: borderline personality disorder in a posttraumatic age

The advent of the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis has been welcomed by many as a recognition of the circumstances and needs of victimized women. This paper argues that the increasing application of the PTSD label to women formerly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, rather than resolving the dilemmas inherent in use of the borderline diagnosis, has succeeded instead in further medicalizing women's problems and reproducing the previously existing caste system of diagnosis and treatment.