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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 15, 2026

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder

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Published on: March 8, 2018

What does sadness mean to BPD patients?

Rachel Briand-Malenfant¹, Serge Lecours, Emilie Deschenaux

¹Universite de Montreal, Departement de Psychologie, 5155 2nd avenue, app. 6, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H1Y 2Y2. rachel.briand-malenfant@umontreal.ca

Journal of Personality Disorders

|January 4, 2013

Summary

Sadness in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is not experienced as typical sadness but as non-mentalized negative affect, often linked to relational breakdowns and self-defects, not loss. This finding is crucial for BPD treatment approaches.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Psychiatry
Clinical Psychology

Background:

Dysphoria is a key symptom in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Previous research has explored general dysphoria in BPD, but not specifically the experience of sadness.
Understanding sadness in BPD is vital for effective therapeutic interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

To qualitatively explore the subjective experience of sadness in individuals diagnosed with BPD within a relational context.
To identify common themes and characteristics of sadness episodes in BPD.

Main Methods:

Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with seven individuals diagnosed with BPD.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) principles were applied to analyze 14 described sadness episodes.
Joint analysis by two doctoral students ensured inter-rater reliability.

Main Results:

Five core themes emerged: aggression, relationship termination by another, undifferentiated negative affect, self-defects, and overwhelming experiences.
Surprisingly, sadness episodes in this context were not associated with representations of loss.
The findings suggest that these experiences are non-mentalized and may not constitute 'sadness proper.'

Conclusions:

Sadness in BPD, particularly in relational contexts, presents uniquely and differs from typical sadness.
These episodes are characterized by non-mentalized affect rather than a response to loss.
Clinical implications suggest a need to reconceptualize and address these experiences differently in BPD treatment.