Phenomenological investigation of sadness experience in borderline personality disorder patients

Dysphoria is a core feature of Borderline Personality Disorder. Although a few studies have examined the nature of dysphoria in those patients, no research has focused on their experience of sadness. Considering the adaptive value of this emotion, an understanding of how BPD patients experience sadness is relevant to treatment. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the narratives of seven individuals with a diagnosis of BPD who have participated to a semi-structured interview describing sadness experiences in a relational context. Sadness episodes were analyzed jointly by two researchers following Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis principles. Six themes were found: 1) relationship broken Off/seperation, 2) aggression, 3) undifferentiated negative affect, 4) self as a bad, unsufficence, devalue person, 5)overwhelming experience, 6) avoidance from experience. Surprisingly, sadness in a relational context was not associated with a representation of loss. According to results sadness experience in BPD patients is an effort to avoidance from experience of loss. This could mean that BPD patients are lacking an access to sadness and creating incapacity to be sad.