[Crisis interventions with patients with borderline personality disorder. Part 1: Preventive and resolving approaches...

Patients suffering from borderline personality disorder have by definition a poorly functional personality which is readily reacting to changes and psychosocial stressors with recurrent crises. A personality disorder is necessarily fraught with interpersonal difficulties, and it is often within the individual psychotherapeutic encounter that such clashes develop. This article discusses basic principles offering clinicians ways to prevent or structure crisis intervention adapted to borderline personality disorder within the individual psychotherapy context. It thus reviews various clinical issues such as suicidal or homicidal threats, conflicts related to requests expressed by the patient, the absence of the therapist or attempts at breaking the therapeutic framework in order to offer intervention modalities for the resolution of these crises.