Hi Denis, Borderline Personality Disorder and schizophrenia (which to my knowledge is still called "schizophrenia") are unrelated. In a desparate attempt to relate my post to the subject of this list, I'll point out that Marsha Linehan, a psychologist at the University of Washington who suffers from BPD, has developed a treatment program for it that borrows heavily from Zen Buddhism, which in turn is a subject that pops up here and there in Salinger's writing. Quick facts: 75% of those diagnosed with BPD are women. 75% are victims of physical or sexual abuse. DSM-IV defines BPD as follows: 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. This is called "splitting." 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). Chronic feelings of emptiness. 7) Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights). 8) Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms. -----Original Message----- From: denis jonnes [mailto:djengltl@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp] Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999 8:48 PM To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu Subject: borderline personality disorder Happy birthday, John!--and thanks to you and Scottie for info and useful clarifications. Another question: What, according to DSM-IV, are symptoms connected with "borderline personality disorder" (which I assume can be referred to as BPD)?--Is this another way of talking about what used to be called "schizophrenia"--which Deleuze and Gattari, once upon a time, told us was really not all that bad a thing to come down with? Am caught up with this as I have to give short talk on "Madness in American Literature" at meeting of Kyushu American Literature Society meeting next month--my brief being American postwar fiction/drama/poetry, where I'm beginning to feel we get nothing but. Am wondering though whether term "madness" has any currency within psychiatry/psychology today. Denis Jonnes