Cascades of Emotion: The Emergence of Borderline Personality Disorder from Emotional and Behavioral Dysregulation

Summary & key facts

This paper introduces the Emotional Cascade Model to explain how Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) might come from a loop between strong feelings and impulsive actions. It says a upsetting event can trigger repetitive, negative thinking. That thinking makes the emotion grow stronger. Strong emotion then leads to impulsive or harmful behaviors that distract the person and give short-lived relief. The authors present this loop as one part of a larger network of interacting factors, and they say the model can fit ideas from different types of therapy.

Key facts:

• The model starts with an emotional trigger. After that, people may begin to ruminate, which means repeating the same negative thoughts over and over.
• This repetitive thinking can create a positive feedback loop that makes the original emotion more intense instead of letting it fade.
• When emotions build up, people may do dysregulated behaviors. These are impulsive or harmful actions that break the chain of thought by distracting the person.
• Those behaviors then give short-term relief because they interrupt the negative thinking and lower the immediate emotional pain.
• The paper treats Borderline Personality Disorder as an emergent problem. That means it may arise from the combined interactions of emotional cascades and other factors, not from a single cause.
• The authors compare this model with many existing theories and therapies, and suggest it might help bridge different therapeutic approaches because it focuses on how emotion and behavior interact.

Abstract

Theories of borderline personality disorder (BPD) have often considered it a disorder involving both emotional and behavioral dysregulation (Linehan, 1993), yet the connection between these phenomena has been elusive. The following paper proposes the Emotional Cascade Model, a model that attempts to establish a clear relationship between emotional dysregulation and the wide array of dysregulated behaviors found in BPD. In this model, subsequent to an emotional stimulus, ruminative processes result in a positive feedback loop that increases emotional intensity, and this emotional intensity leads to ensuing behavioral dysregulation. These behaviors then provide negative feedback, in the form of distraction, which induces temporary reduction of negative emotion and thus relief. The model is presented in a framework in which BPD is considered an emergent phenomenon (Lewin, 1992), where the disorder arises from the total interactions of a network containing emotional cascades and other important factors. The model is then evaluated in light of various theories and therapeutic traditions, including both cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic, indicating that it is a model that may transcend traditional theoretical and therapeutic doctrines.

Topics

Mental Health and Psychiatry Personality Disorders and Psychopathology Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Affective neuroscience Anxiety Behavioral activation Borderline personality disorder Cognition Cognitive psychology Developmental psychology Distraction Emotional disorder Emotional dysregulation Neuroscience Personality Psychiatry Psychodynamics Psychology Psychotherapist Social psychology

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Depression Anxiety or worry Feeling disconnected from others Sadness or low mood