ABSTRACT
The Multiple Self States Model was developed in an attempt to address the therapeutic challenges that these clients present and to help both clients and therapists make sense of and work with the changeable presentations often seen in clients with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Whilst Cognitive Analytic Therapy and the Procedural Sequence Object Relations Model provide a good understanding of the development of the self, limitations were noted in relation to clients with more complex histories and presentations associated with borderline personality disorder. A central diagnostic feature of BPD is the attempt to avoid real or imagined abandonment and the perceived threat of abandonment can bring about profound changes in individuals’ emotions, which they find difficult to tolerate. The two terms, BPD and emotionally unstable personality disorder, therefore describe a similar presentation and set of symptoms.
