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Effects of Shame Induction in Borderline Personality Disorder

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Abstract

Shame is a powerful emotion with a strong link to borderline personality disorder. This study investigates shame levels in borderline personality disorder, compared to major depressive disorder and healthy women. A total of 25 women with borderline personality disorder, 25 women with major depression and 23 healthy women underwent a shame induction exercise. The self-reported intensity of shame, anger, anxiety, sadness, joy, annoyance, and boredom, was measured five times. Compared to participants with major depression and healthy women, patients with borderline personality disorder had higher baseline levels of shame, but there was no evidence of greater emotional intensity or a prolonged return to baseline after shame induction. They were the only group to express increased anger following the exercise. These findings strengthen the view of stronger emotional negativity in borderline personality disorder. The differences in the impact of shame on anger may contribute toward understanding emotion regulation difficulties in borderline personality disorder.

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Acknowledgments

We want to thank Georg Schmitt, MD, for his support. He gave us the opportunity to assess our MDD sample at the Reha-clinic in Glotterbad. This research was not supported by any funding organization.

Conflict of interest

We do not have any conflicts of interest in the conduct and reporting of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University Freiburg, Engelbergerstrasse 41, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Corinna N. Scheel, Brunna Tuschen-Caffier & Gitta A. Jacob

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Corinna N. Scheel, Eva-Maria Schneid, Oliver Tuescher, Klaus Lieb & Gitta A. Jacob

  3. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Eva-Maria Schneid

  4. Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Oliver Tuescher & Klaus Lieb

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  1. Corinna N. Scheel
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Correspondence to Corinna N. Scheel.

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Scheel, C.N., Schneid, EM., Tuescher, O. et al. Effects of Shame Induction in Borderline Personality Disorder. Cogn Ther Res 37, 1160–1168 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-013-9567-7

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