A new insight into borderline and narcissistic dissociative experience: the mentalization of attachment trauma

The perspective on traumatic attachment has opened to a new understanding of personality pathology posing the notion of dissociation at the core of borderline and narcissistic disorders. By presenting the results of three empirical studies the following aspects will be evidenced: 1) The presence of traumatic experiences is a non-specific (transversal) predictor of personality disorders. 2) To understand the relationship between personality pathology and attachment it is not possible to rely on attachment specific categories but it is necessary to refer to attachment processes as investigated through the Adult Attachment Interview. 3) In particular, the Unresolved State of Mind with Respect to Abuse and Losses is the process related to Adult State of Mind with Respect to Attachment predicting the area of dissociation. 4) In order to understand the specific link between attachment processes and borderline as well as narcissistic personality disorders it is necessary to comprehend how traumata and dissociative experiences are actively organized in peculiar configurations of the State of Mind with Respect to Attachment (states of identity) described by alternative classification modelsof the AAI. 5) The narcissistic patient’s experiences is organized around the defensive management of the rage involved in abuse and maltreatment past experiences, while the borderline patient’s experience is characterized by the prevalence of the dissociative void connected to abandonment experiences.