[New approaches for understanding borderline personality disorder]

The concept of Borderline Personality Disorders was developed from North-American psychiatric and psychoanalytic thought. During recent years different contributions on this disorder emerged from several psychological paradigms. Four current trains of research are reviewed: Approaches based upon the five-factor-model of personality, Linehan's behavioristic approach, interpersonal concepts as shown by Benjamin and a self-developed subject-centered approach focussing on the patients' subjective theories of illness. These models converge into a concept which interprets Borderline Personality Disorders as disturbances of personal identity. The patients fail when attempting to overcome the tension between being a person and being a subject in their interpretation of the world and themselves. At the end of the article consequences for therapy are highlighted.