Borderline personality disorder is an innate empathy anomaly: A scoping and narrative review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Borderline personality disorder is an innate empathy anomaly

T2 - A scoping and narrative review

AU - Hayward, David

AU - McIntyre, Donald

AU - Steele, Douglas

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2024/10/29

Y1 - 2024/10/29

N2 - Background: Studying empathy in borderline personality disorder (BPD) is essential because difficulties with interpersonal functioning are integral. Objectives: This scoping and narrative review explores the aetiological theory that BPD is an innate anomaly of cognitive empathy, with a normal or heightened emotional empathy. Eligibility criteria and sources of evidence: Ovid MEDLINE(R) ALL was searched using the terms empathy; theory of mind; mentalisation or mentalising; borderline empathy; emotion recognition and BPD. For inclusion in the scoping review, articles needed to empirically assess an empathic skill in people with BPD, or self-reported empathy in a BPD group compared to controls, or empathic skill as a ‘borderline feature’ in a nonclinical sample. Charting method: The results of empirical studies were categorised as per their methodological approach, with results in the BPD group reported as comparable, enhanced or reduced compared to controls. Results: 320 articles were returned, with 38 eligible. The majority affirmed that people with BPD have an anomalous empathetic ability, especially a deficient cognitive empathy. Furthermore, this is trait, evident early in development, correlates with syndrome severity, and is mediated by atypical neural networks. Conclusions: This substantiates the theory that BPD is, at least in major part, an innate empathy anomaly

AB - Background: Studying empathy in borderline personality disorder (BPD) is essential because difficulties with interpersonal functioning are integral. Objectives: This scoping and narrative review explores the aetiological theory that BPD is an innate anomaly of cognitive empathy, with a normal or heightened emotional empathy. Eligibility criteria and sources of evidence: Ovid MEDLINE(R) ALL was searched using the terms empathy; theory of mind; mentalisation or mentalising; borderline empathy; emotion recognition and BPD. For inclusion in the scoping review, articles needed to empirically assess an empathic skill in people with BPD, or self-reported empathy in a BPD group compared to controls, or empathic skill as a ‘borderline feature’ in a nonclinical sample. Charting method: The results of empirical studies were categorised as per their methodological approach, with results in the BPD group reported as comparable, enhanced or reduced compared to controls. Results: 320 articles were returned, with 38 eligible. The majority affirmed that people with BPD have an anomalous empathetic ability, especially a deficient cognitive empathy. Furthermore, this is trait, evident early in development, correlates with syndrome severity, and is mediated by atypical neural networks. Conclusions: This substantiates the theory that BPD is, at least in major part, an innate empathy anomaly

KW - Borderline personality disorder

KW - empathy

KW - aetiology

KW - mentalisation

KW - personality disorders

KW - interpersonal behaviour

UR - https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24511690.v1

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85208068212

U2 - 10.1080/13651501.2024.2420662

DO - 10.1080/13651501.2024.2420662

M3 - Article

C2 - 39470631

AN - SCOPUS:85208068212

SN - 1365-1501

VL - 28

SP - 152

EP - 166

JO - International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice

JF - International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice

IS - 2

ER -