The structural interview method for diagnosing borderline disorders: a critique

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.