Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex mental health condition characterized by difficulty regulating emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. People with BPD tend to experience intense and unstable emotions, impulsivity, unstable relationships, and an unstable sense of self.
While there is no one definitive “borderline personality type,” research has uncovered certain personality traits and tendencies that are commonly seen in those with BPD.
The Five Factor Model of Personality
One framework for understanding personality types and traits is the Five Factor Model, also known as the Big Five. This model proposes that there are five core personality dimensions that can be used to describe human personality:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Research suggests that those with BPD tend to score in certain ways across these five personality factors:
Openness to Experience
This trait reflects curiosity, creativity, and a preference for novelty and variety. Studies have found mixed results when it comes to openness and BPD:
- Some studies have found that BPD is associated with high openness to experience. This suggests that those with BPD may be highly curious and imaginative.
- However, other studies have found no significant difference in openness between those with BPD and the general population.
Conscientiousness
This dimension involves self-discipline, organization, and goal-directed behaviors. Research shows that those with BPD tend to score low in conscientiousness. This suggests they may struggle with:
- Impulsivity
- Disorganization
- Lack of long-term planning
Extraversion
Extraversion refers to outgoingness, assertiveness, and a drive for social stimulation. Studies indicate that extraversion levels can vary widely among those with BPD:
- Some score very high in extraversion, appearing outgoing and attention-seeking.
- Others score very low in extraversion, coming across as socially withdrawn.
Agreeableness
This trait reflects cooperation, trust, and amiability towards others. Individuals with BPD frequently score very low in agreeableness. This manifests as:
- Interpersonal distrust
- Difficulty getting along with others
- Heightened conflict in relationships
Neuroticism
Neuroticism refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety, anger, and depression. By far, this is the personality trait most strongly associated with BPD. Specifically, those with BPD tend to be extremely high in neuroticism. This underlies many of the emotional issues seen with BPD, including:
- Mood swings
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Impulsive behavior
- Intense anger
- Frequent anxiety
In summary, the typical Five Factor personality profile of someone with BPD often includes:
- High neuroticism
- Low agreeableness
- Low conscientiousness
- Variable extraversion
- Variable openness to experience
Myers-Briggs Personality Types
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is another commonly used system for classifying personality types. The MBTI categorizes individuals along 4 spectrums:
- Extraversion vs Introversion
- Sensing vs Intuition
- Thinking vs Feeling
- Judging vs Perceiving
Based on an individual’s position along these spectrums, they are classified into one of 16 personality types, such as INFP or ESTJ.
Research on BPD and MBTI types yields the following patterns:
- The most common MBTI types among those with BPD are turbulent perceiving types, such as INFP-T or ISFP-T personalities.
- The prevalence of introverted feeling (IXFP) types may reflect the inward emotional focus and sensitivity commonly seen in BPD.
- The correlation with turbulent perceiving types maps onto the emotional instability and impulsiveness of BPD.
However, some studies find no significant correlation between MBTI types and BPD. Overall, the Five Factor Model may capture BPD personality traits more comprehensively than the MBTI system.
Millon’s Personality Subtypes
Theodore Millon developed a categorical system for classifying different personality disorders, including BPD, into specific subtypes based on observable traits. Millon proposed four BPD subtypes:
Subtype 1: The Petulant Borderline
Petulant borderlines are childlike, displaying neediness, willful behavior, and resentment towards others. They struggle with abandonment fears and can alternate between idealizing and devaluing relationships.
Subtype 2: The Impulsive Borderline
Impulsive borderlines act recklessly on urges and cravings without considering consequences. They may use sexuality, substance abuse, binge eating, gambling, or shoplifting to cope with boredom and emptiness.
Subtype 3: The Angry Borderline
Angry borderlines frequently experience and act out extreme anger and hostility. They are paranoid, often accusing others of harming or taking advantage of them. Interpersonally, they are demanding and manipulative.
Subtype 4: The Self-Destructive Borderline
Self-destructive borderlines feel unworthy and defective. They punish themselves through self-harm, suicidal behavior, eating disorders, and other dangerous impulses. They feel despairing and isolated from others.
Millon’s subtypes capture some of the diversity of behavioral styles and coping patterns seen among people diagnosed with BPD. However, individuals may not clearly fit into just one subtype.
Attachment Styles
Attachment theory describes how early childhood experiences with caregivers shape a person’s expectations and behaviors in relationships throughout life. Those with BPD frequently develop insecure, anxious, or disorganized attachment styles as a result of inadequate nurturing and bonding in infancy and childhood. Common attachment styles seen in BPD include:
Anxious Attachment
Those with an anxious attachment style worry about abandonment, struggle with separation, and constantly seek signs that others care about them. They become preoccupied with relationship partners.
Disorganized Attachment
A disorganized attachment style reflects a lack of coherent strategy for managing attachment needs and anxiety. Those with disorganized attachments may deal with relationship stress through contradictory, confusing behaviors.
Avoidant Attachment
Individuals with an avoidant attachment style feel uncomfortable relying on others and prioritize maintaining emotional distance and independence. But this avoidance masks inner attachment needs.
Understanding a borderline’s habitual attachment patterns can provide insight into their self-image, expectations, and relationships.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Schema Modes
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a specialized psychotherapy for BPD focused on improving emotion regulation skills. In DBT, “schema modes” refer to temporary mindsets or roles that a borderline individual fluctuates between.
DBT describes four schema modes characteristic of BPD:
The Detached Protector
To cope with feeling vulnerable, the detached protector mode distances from emotions and relationships through avoidance, daydreaming, or substance use.
The Angry Child
The angry child mode represents rage, emotional pain, and a sense of victimization. This schema reflects attachment needs gone unmet.
The Punitive Parent
The punitive parent is an internalized voice of self-judgment, blame, shame, and self-attack.
The Healthy Adult
The healthy adult schema represents emotional balance, empathy, and wisdom to make sound choices. DBT aims to help borderlines access this mode more often.
DBT views BPD not as a fixed personality type, but rather as a set of mutable schemas that can transform through treatment and learning self-management skills.
The Graceful Lifestyle: A New Perspective on the Borderline Personality
In her book “The Graceful Lifestyle,” Dr. Linda Martinez-Lewi proposes an alternative perspective of the borderline personality that emphasizes its gifts as well as its struggles. She suggests that those with BPD are:
- Intensely perceptive
- Creative and visionary
- Empathic and spiritually attuned
- Passionate and inspired
From this standpoint, the unstable sense of self in BPD reflects an openness to life’s possibilities. The emotional intensity signifies a capacity and longing to deeply connect. Impulsiveness represents spontaneity. And the fear of rejection reflects the profound need to give and receive love.
This viewpoint highlights the sensitivity and aliveness at the core of the borderline personality, obscured by society’s judgment and dismissal of BPD as defective.
Summary
In summary, those with borderline personality disorder tend to share certain personality traits, attachment styles, and coping mechanisms that underlie the key symptoms of BPD. But there is diversity within borderline personalities. While unstable emotions, impulsivity, anger, and an anxious attachment style are common, borderlines differ in areas like introversion/extraversion and specific behavioral styles when distressed.
Rather than BPD reflecting a single personality type, it likely represents a constellation of schemas, temperament traits, and learned coping mechanisms gone awry. With compassionate treatment, those with BPD can develop greater self-awareness and skills to transform painful personality patterns into sources of depth and sensitivity.