your words speak far more to what you already think about BPD than any reply of mine. Quite obviously you're highly prejudiced in this area before you ever read the LW's letter, etc. It's interesting, this is exactly the terrible prejudice I'm talking about. And since you refuse to work with people who have BPD, how do you know all this? How can you even begin to read or know anything related to BPD with an open mind or have compassion for the human beings that suffer from it and from the notoriousness of the label and what it does to people? I may very well have a high horse (of course), but it's not as high as this.

Regardless, you have claimed that "This lady is almost the poster child for a High Functioning Borderline Personality." and "What I said was that this LW seems to have most of the key symptoms of BPD..." So which is it? Do you know or don't you know?

And if you know, which symptoms does the LW have? Exactly. And don't reiterate what Anonymous said. You tell it in real DSM-IV terms, psychology 600, not 101, terms. Go back and read the LW's emails without looking at Anonymous' emails and spell it out, line for line. In detail.

...and 5-hour sessions? Herbal tea? Jung? If I were channeling Jung, we'd be talking archetypes and complexes here, my dear.

It took me awhile to get you were saying something to me. Duh. First things first. I'm not in my office and this isn't official, I have opinions, we're not doing therapy, so I can have all the emotional 'woof' I want. Regardless, I think I've been pretty damn clinical with things to the degree that I'm stating just the facts here when it comes to diagnosis of BPD. I'm not doing it because I want to be the expert (oh contrare, now people may expect this or I'll be expected to always be understanding and empathetic. Sigh.) but because no one else who knows a lot about it is doing that or knows what they're talking about with it and I hate it when people trash other people simply because of the sin of inconsistency or some other rather minimal human foible and start putting this particular label on folks, particularly here because of how badly they write email. Maybe some of this is that I have seen some terrible injustices done to people who don't have the mental wherewithal to completely defend themselves and no one else is really doing that and that's when my "woof" comes out. I felt I saw it here.

So, to be clear, just because someone is a bitch, an asshole, lies, does a 180 on what they say, is manipulative, seeks attention, is a golddigger (is there a male term for this?), steals, cheats, murders, is inconsistent, has major spin factor, is extraordinarily defensive, exaggerates, even if they show B&W thinking or quick devaluation (love/hate) of another person, sends your your spidey alarm on high alert (good term)....what else?....anyway, doesn't matter. All this does not mean they are BPD. If they don't fulfill at least 5 of the criterion of the list of criteria that I gave in my previous email, they are not BPD. That's it. And that's a fact according to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, edition 4) not just my opinion. It's the difference between saying something's not fair and something's the LAW. Everything else is simply conjecture and opinion. Now some BPD's may do some of those things but so do a lot of other "normal" people.

I do think something you said about the drama is accurate, at least from the sounds of things with your ex. Most BPDs, not all mind you, but most are very drama saturated. They're usually a handful and high-maintainance. And most of them require exact boundaries spelled out and defined. But so do Histrionics, Narcissists and Anti-Socials ....and normal people (you should see couple therapy. Now that's drama and everyone is clinically crazy. This forum doesn't hold a candle to watching, let alone negotiating, some couples in action). Regardless, high drama in an individual, and I mean HIGH DRAMA, raises my eyebrows to the possibility of something going on. But they still have to fit into the criteria.

Now, if we look below your email to me I do believe PERHAPS that we have a clear case of Narcissism going on. Here is someone who babbles on for the sake of hearing themselves babble and has repeated themselves endlessly (and I do mean endlessly...yawn), bullied others if they don't agree with them, wants to have the last word...always, fairly classic in black and white thinking and labels, insults and demonizes anyone who isn't on their side, and has clearly gone off the deep end. Hmmmm.....Textbook! BTW, B&W thinking is actually a more Narcissistic feature that is "shared" with borderline and anti-social but is stereotypical of Narcissism. Anyway, I would suggest for anyone that's interested looking up NPD on the net, all that you thought BPD is, is actually NPD or APD. Seriously. Hopefully, that answered your questions, SB4609.

Woof!!!

You Rock!

Drop me Jesus, through goal post of life! Sing it again, chillin!

Let me rephrase that!

Drop KICK me Jesus, through goal post of life! Sing it again, chillin.

Drop KICK me Jesus, through THE goal post of life! Whew!

Nurtured by Opus's mother special meals...Yum...Happy Sunday! Made my day...er night, since it's still night where I'm at, but WTH. Thank you! Opus Lives!