Narratively Shaped Emotions: The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder. 2020

Anna Bortolan
Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK.

In this article, I provide a phenomenological exploration of the role played by narrativity in shaping affective experience. I start by surveying and identifying different ways in which linguistic and narrative expression contribute to structure and regulate emotions, and I then expand on these insights by taking into consideration the phenomenology of borderline personality disorder. Disruptions of narrative abilities have been shown to be central to the illness, and I argue that these disruptions are at the origin of a number of alterations of affective experience. In particular, I suggest that due to the narrative "fragmentation" characteristic of the disorder, the emotions experienced by borderline patients can be less differentiated and have a predominantly bodily and unregulated character.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007802 Language A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings. Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D001883 Borderline Personality Disorder A personality disorder marked by a pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. (DSM-IV) Personality Disorder, Borderline,Disorder, Borderline Personality,Borderline Personality Disorders,Disorders, Borderline Personality,Personality Disorders, Borderline
D004644 Emotions Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties. Feelings,Regret,Emotion,Feeling,Regrets
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000080103 Emotional Regulation The manifestation of an emotional response by which individuals influence the intensity, duration, valence, or manifestation of their response. Emotion regulation either precedes (avoidance, interpretation) or follows an emotion (suppression, reappraisal). Emotion regulation is distinct from coping (focuses primarily on decreasing a negative emotional experience), and can include increasing or decreasing both positive and negative emotions consciously or unconsciously. Emotion Regulation,Emotion Self-Regulation,Emotional Self-Regulation,Emotion Self Regulation,Emotion Self-Regulations,Emotional Regulations,Emotional Self Regulation,Emotional Self-Regulations,Regulation, Emotion,Regulation, Emotional,Regulations, Emotional,Self-Regulation, Emotion,Self-Regulation, Emotional,Self-Regulations, Emotion,Self-Regulations, Emotional
D033262 Narration The act, process, or an instance of narrating, i.e., telling a story. In the context of MEDICINE or ETHICS, narration includes relating the particular and the personal in the life story of an individual. Narrative Ethics,Ethics, Narrative,Narrations

Related Publications

Anna Bortolan
January 2014, Psychopathology,
Anna Bortolan
July 2008, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica,
Anna Bortolan
March 2007, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie,
Anna Bortolan
September 2005, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry,
Anna Bortolan
January 2004, Seishin shinkeigaku zasshi = Psychiatria et neurologia Japonica,
Copied contents to your clipboard!