ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the origin and evolution of the borderline concept. Relevant historical trends are identified and a framework is established on which to base further study. The works of Kraepelin, Freud, and Bleuler are seen to lay the foundation for later systems of diagnosis and classification. Early metapsychologists provided insight into the psychological dynamics of the borderline patient, while the early descriptive psychopathologists contributed significantly to their phenomenological description of this patient population. Robert Knight in the early 1950s and John Gunderson in the mid-1970s synthesized the work that preceded them. The psychostructural writings on the borderline patient, Otto Kernberg were considered representative, while Roy Grinker's research epitomized a more empirical approach to the problem of diagnostic criteria. The impact of early family and genetic studies as well as the evolving body of pharmacological literature was considered relevant to the appreciation of their current system of diagnosis of the borderline personality disorder.
