Addressing Spiritual and Religious Experiences in Borderline Personality Disorder With Good Psychiatric Management

Spiritual and religious experiences in the context of borderline personality disorder are underexplored by both researchers and clinicians, are central in the lived experience of some patients, and are likely to interact in complex ways with core symptoms and challenges. Effective navigation of this domain by clinicians and patients may require increasing, decreasing, or stabilizing engagement with spiritual and religious beliefs, practices, or communities, depending on the person. No empirically derived guidelines exist for how clinicians can address this area to help patients maximize benefits while minimizing harms. The author summarizes what is known about spirituality and religiosity in borderline personality disorder and draws on evidence-based theory and techniques from good psychiatric management to develop a preliminary phenomenology of spiritual connectedness amid interpersonal hypersensitivity and tentative guidelines for effectively addressing this domain.