PSYCH 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 77: Dsm-5, Ambivalence, Mentalization
Document Summary
Those with bpd are unable to tolerate unconscious conflicts. Particularly conflicts between love and hate (affection and aggression, liking and disliking) for the same person. This includes love and hate towards themselves. To cope, they use defenses that focus solely on one side of a conflict, as though the other does not exist. Splitting: view something as entirely good or entirely bad; see one side but not the other. This lack of integration makes them unstable. Poor bonds with caregivers bad attachment. Attachment representation: one"s internal, unconscious concept of being intimately connected to and sufficiently cared for by others. Coexistence of anger and need for bad parent . Regular use of splitting defenses leads one to lack integration. Early trauma, such as physical/sexual abuse, may also lead to bad attachment and splitting. Parents with poor ability to reflect on themselves or absent parents children with poor ability to reflect on their behavior (and others")
