Table 1.

DSM‐5 criteria for borderline personality disorder ²⁷

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self‐image and affects, and marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self‐image or sense of self.

4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self‐damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).

5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats, or self‐mutilating behavior.

6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

7. Chronic feelings of emptiness.

8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty in controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).

9. Transient, stress‐related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.