Assessment of Autobiographical Memory Narratives in Psychotherapy with Borderline Personality Disorder: An exploratory study

Abstract

Autobiographical memory narratives that emerge in therapeutic discourse can aid the understanding of the client?s narrative identity and the identification of cen-tral themes or conflicts. The study aimed to examine the structure and thematic content of autobiographical memory narratives of five clients with Borderline Personality Dis-order (BPD), during the early phase of individual psychotherapy. The Biopsychosocial Interview gathered narrative material about the clients? life experiences in childhood and adulthood and explored the history of psychological difficulties and/or disorders. The interview and the first five sessions of psychotherapy for each client were audio record-ed, transcribed and coded for analysis. The Coding System for Autobiographical Memory Narratives in Psychotherapy was used to identify autobiographical memory narratives from the clients? life experiences, rate the narrative complexity, specificity and integration, and derive narrative patterns or themes. Analysis indicated that the narra-tives had a moderate level of complexity, low levels of specificity, were predominantly autobiographical, poorly integrated and revealed dominant themes of contamination. Narrative themes of agency, communion and redemption were relatively lower among the clients. The implications for therapeutic practice, training of clinicians and future re-search are discussed.