Blaming the victim

I artikkelen "When She Was Bad: Borderline Personality Disorder in a Posttraumatic Age" av psykologen Dana Becker, i American Journal of Orthopsychiatry October 2000 Vol. 70, No. 4, leser vi blant annet:

It is a diagnosis that has been applied to women at a rate of about seven to one over men.

In fact, borderline has become the most pejorative of all personality labels, and it is now little more than shorthand for a difficult, angry female client certain to give the therapist countertransferential headaches.

... the borderline diagnosis is referred to as if it were equivalent to a symptom (e.g., “the outcome of group treatments was said to be adversely affected when a group member had high levels of dissociation…and a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder). Circular arguments—that a person is demanding because she “has” BPD or that a therapist acted inappropriately because her client “has” BPD—do nothing to advance our understanding of so-called borderline phenomena.

... many women to whom the BPD diagnosis has been applied have suffered physical, sexual, and other forms of childhood maltreatment...

... women diagnosed with BPD are often considered mentally disabled and, as such, subject to involuntary institutionalization or medication and loss of child custody or parental rights. They likewise are often discredited as witnesses in court cases involving rape or sexual abuse.

Artikkel 2: "How Nursing Staff Respond to the Label "Borderline Personality Disorder"" av Gallop et al. i Hosp Community Psychiatry.1989; 40:

The influence of the diagnostic labels "schizophrenia" and "borderline personality disorder" on the expressed empathy of psychiatric nursing staff was assessed by examining nurses' written responses to a series of hypothetical patient statements. Respondents were more likely to demonstrate affective involvement in response to the schizophrenic patients' statements and were more likely to offer belittling or contradicting responses to the statements of patients with borderline personality disorder. The results corroborate increasing concerns that the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder has become a pejorative label for difficult patients and suggest that staff may provide stereotypic responses and less empathic care to borderline patients than to other patients.

Artikkel 3: "Trauma Reenactment: Rethinking Borderline Personality Disorder When Diagnosing Sexual Abuse Survivors" av Robyn L. Trippany, Heather M. Helm, Laura Simpson
i Journal of Mental Health Counseling Volume 28, Number 2 / April 2006:

Adult survivors of sexual trauma often experience symptoms related to their childhood experiences that are analogous to many of the diagnostic criteria of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This article examines these symptoms in the context of a trauma framework and postulates that mental health counselors need to consider if the symptomatic behaviors are more indicative of a post-traumatic response, specifically trauma reenactment. Recognizing self-harming behaviors in adult survivors as reenactments of childhood sexual trauma rather than characterological manifestations of personality deficits serves to improve the quality of care of such clients in that mental health counselors may then focus on the unresolved issues rather than personality restructuring. Thus, understanding clients from a trauma framework can minimize the stigma that is often associated with the diagnosis of BPD and provide a more objective treatment climate.