Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Borderline Personality Disorder and the Boundaries of Virtue

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Neuroethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Individuals with conditions like borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience chronic, pervasive impairments that interfere with moral functioning. Even in recovery these individuals are plagued by residual symptoms, requiring diligence and management. First, I stipulate that some individuals who recover from BPD (and similar conditions) act morally. I argue that by acting morally while managing residual symptoms these individuals expand the boundaries of traditional Aristotelian virtue. Individuals who recover from BPD are simultaneously virtuous and outside the boundaries of traditional Aristotelian virtue if they meet the following conditions: (1) they experience marked, unchangeable morally-relevant difference(s) in moral faculties; (2) act morally at approximately the same rate or better than other moral agents; and (3) act morally for the right reasons. These individuals challenge the boundaries of traditional Aristotelian virtue by demonstrating that many views of temperance and virtue are too restrictive. I evaluate multiple interpretations of McDowell’s [1] silencing view and call for a more inclusive virtue ethics that embraces continence in the vein of Foot’s [2] corrective view.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Not applicable.

References

  1. McDowell, J. 1979. Virtue and reason. The Monist 62 (3): 331–350 www.jstor.org/stable/279026000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Foot, P. 2002. Virtues and vices. In Virtues and vice and other essays in moral philosophy, ed. P. Foot, 1–18. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Carey, B. 2011, June 22. Expert on mental illness reveals her own fight. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html?pagewanted=al

  4. Lieb, K., M.C. Zanarini, C. Schmahl, M.M. Linehan, and M. Bohus. 2004. Borderline personality disorder. The Lancet 364: 453–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16770-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D. C: American Psychiatric Association.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Stanley, B., and New, A. S. 2018. Borderline personality disorder. New York: Oxford University Press.

  7. Bostwick, J.M., and V.S. Pankrats. 2000. Affective disorders and suicide risk: A reexamination. American Journal of Psychiatry 157: 1925–1932. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.157.12.1925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Aviram, R.B., B.S. Brodsky, and B. Stanley. 2006. Borderline personality disorder, stigma, and treatment implications. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 14 (5): 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/10673220600975121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bourke, M.E., and B.F.S. Grenyer. 2010. Psychotherapists’ response to borderline personality disorder: A core conflictual relationship theme analysis. Psychotherapy Research 20 (6): 680–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2010.504242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Paris, J., and H. Zweig-Frank. 2001. A 27-year follow-up of patients with borderline personality disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry 42 (6): 482–487. https://doi.org/10.1053/comp.2001.26271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Zanarini, M. C., Frankenburg, F. R, Reich, D. B, and Fitzmaurice, G. 2012. Attainment and stability of sustained symptomatic remission and recovery among patients with borderline personality disorder and Axis II comparison subjects: A 16-Year prospective follow-up study. American Journal of Psychiatry 169 (5): 476–483. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11101550.

  12. Carlson, E.A., B. Egeland, and A.L. Sroufe. 2009. A prospective investigation of the development of borderline personality symptoms. Development and Psychopathology 21: 1311–1334. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409990174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dutton, D.G., and S.K. Golant. 1995. The batterer: A psychological profile. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Zanarini, M.C., F.R. Frankenburg, J. Hennen, D.B. Reich, and K.R. Silk. 2005. The McLean study of adult development (MSAD): Overview and implications of the first six years of prospective follow-up. Journal of Personality Disorders 19 (5): 505–523. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2005.19.5.505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Andover, M.S., H.T. Schatten, and B.W. Morris. 2018. Suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury in borderline personality disorder. In Primer on borderline personality disorder, ed. B. Stanley and A.S. New, 129–148. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Oquendo, M.A., D. Currier, and J.J. Mann. 2006. Prospective studies of suicidal behavior in depressive and bipolar disorders: What is the evidence for predictive risk factors? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 114: 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00829.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Brown, M. Z., Comtois, K. A,  and Linehan, M. M. 2002. Reasons for suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury in women with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111 (1): 198–202. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843X.11.1.198.

  18. Stanley, B., and T. Singh. 2018. Diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. In Primer on borderline personality disorder, ed. B. Stanley and A.S. New, 17–34. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Zanarini, M.C., and L.C. Conkey. 2018. Onset, course, and prognosis for borderline personality disorder. In Primer on borderline personality disorder, ed. B. Stanley and A.S. New, 35–53. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Widiger, T.A., and C. Crego. 2018. Psychopathy and DSM-5 psychopathology. In Handbook of psychopathy, ed. C.J. Patrick, 2nd ed., 281–296. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Hare, R.D., T.J. Harpur, A.R. Hakstian, A.E. Forth, S.D. Hart, and J.P. Newman. 1990. The revised psychopathy checklist: Reliability and factor structure. Psychological Assessment 2 (3): 338–341. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.2.3.338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Stepp, S.D., D.J. Whalen, P.A. Pilkonis, A.E. Hipwell, and M.D. Levine. 2011. Children of mothers with borderline personality disorder: Identifying parenting behaviors as potential targets for intervention. Personality Disorders 3 (1): 76–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Dutton, D.G. 2006. Rethinking domestic violence. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Dutton, D. 1995. Male abusiveness in intimate relationships. Clinical Psychology Review 15 (6): 567–581. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.1995.tb00040.x.

  25. Sansone, R.A., C. Lam, and M.W. Wiederman. 2010. Borderline personality disorder and reckless driving. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 71 (4): 507. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.09l0549gre.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Sansone, R.A., and L.A. Sansone. 2009. Borderline personality and criminality. Psychiatry 6 (10): 16–20.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Black, D.W., T. Gunter, J. Allen, N. Blum, S. Arndt, G. Wenman, and B. Sieleni. 2007. Borderline personality disorder in male and female offenders newly committed to prison. Journal of Comprehensive Psychiatry 48: 400–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2007.04.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Aristotle. 1985. Nicomachean ethics. Trans. T. Irwin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.

  29. Blum, L.A. 1994. Moral perception and particularity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  30. Zagzebski, L.T. 2017. Exemplarist moral theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  31. McDowell, J. 1978. Are moral requirements hypothetical imperatives? Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 52 (13-29): 31–42 www.jstor.org/stable/4106788.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Roberts, R.C. 1989. Aristotle on virtues and emotions. Philosophical Studies 56 (3): 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00354366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Kennett, J. 2001. Agency and responsibility: A common-sense moral psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  34. MacIntyre, A.C. 1981. After virtue: A study in moral theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Flanagan, O.J. 1993. Varieties of moral personality: Ethics and psychological realism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  36. Kristjánsson, K. 2008. An Aristotelian critique of situationism. Philosophy 83 (323): 55–76 10.107S0031819108000302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Lott, M. 2014. Situationism, skill, and the rarity of virtue. The Journal of Value Inquiry 48: 387–401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-014-9415-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Miller, C.B. 2014. Character and moral psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  39. Burnyeat, M.F. 1980. Aristotle on learning to be good. In Essays on Aristotle’s ethics, ed. A.O. Rorty, 69–92. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  40. Johnson, R.N. 2003. Virtue and right. Ethics 113: 810–834 10.004-1704/2003/11304-0001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Brown, M.Z., M.M. Linehan, K.A. Comtois, A. Murray, and A.L. Chapman. 2009. Shame as a prospective predictor of self-inflicted injury in borderline personality disorder: A multi-modal analysis. Behavioral Research Theory 47 (10): 815–822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2009.06.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Gratz, K.L., M.Z. Rosenthal, M.T. Tull, C.W. Lejuez, and J.G. Gunderson. 2010. An experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: The role of shame. Comprehensive Psychiatry 51: 275–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2019. National survey on drug use and health. Washington D. C: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Telfer, E. 1989. The unity of the moral virtues in Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 90: 35–48 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4545107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my dissertation committee at Washington University in St. Louis, especially John Doris and Anne Margaret Baxley who reviewed early drafts of this paper. Thank you to my colleagues at Boston College who gave substantive feedback on a presentation of this project. I am especially grateful to Lee Birdwhistell for helping me finalize the paper for publication.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy Department, Boston College, 253N Stokes Hall, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, 02467, USA

    Katie Harster

Authors
  1. Katie Harster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katie Harster.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Harster, K. Borderline Personality Disorder and the Boundaries of Virtue. Neuroethics 14, 479–490 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-021-09467-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-021-09467-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation