Borderline Personality Disorder, Language, and Stigma

As many research studies show, a large portion of clinicians in the mental field hold pejorative attitudes toward those with borderline personality disorder. Oftentimes, these attitudes become manifest through the use of stigmatizing language to describe client behavior, such as “manipulative” and “attention seeking.” In this article, combining personal experience with research, I explore how stigmatizing language and attitudes affect the relationship between client and clinician and how such language impacts recovery. I offer for consideration solutions that might be more conducive to recovery and lead to a better working relationship between client and clinician.