Black Swan

Black Swan Movie Poster

The 2010 movie Black Swan is surely interesting for anyone interested in Borderline Personality Disorder. It centers around a young ballet dancer named Nina. Her character portrays a number of symptoms common in Borderline Personality Disorder such as ‘black and white’ thinking, a common characteristic in borderline personality and episodes of idealisation, devaluation and her unstable sense of identity. The film was Oscar nominated and is rated 8,2 at IMDB.

Inside the mind of a Mafia Hitman

 

This is a very interesting video of an interview with one of the most notorious killers of our times. Richard Kuklinski was born in 1935 and died in 2006 in prison where he had been since 1988. He was sentenced to a life in prison after being convicted of 3 murders although the real number of victims was somewhere between one and two hundred. He served as a mafia hitman for over 30 years until he was caught. In this interview a psychiatrist talks to Kuklinski about his career as a hitman, his childhood and explains why he became so successful as a hitman. The explanation is in part that he suffered from a toxic mixture of personality disorders and grew up in a very dysfunctional home. A must see for all interested in personality disorders and forensic psychology. Wikipedia also has some information on Richard Kuklinski: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mind Reading capacity in Borderline Personality Disorder

In a study published in 2012, the mind reading capacity of Borderline Personality Disorder patients was estimated. This mind reading capacity is often referred to as "Theory of mind", but that is a phrase describing the ability to understand the mental state of others. It has been hypothesized that those suffering from BPD have reduced capacities to mentalize others state of mind and that they have enhanced emotional sensitivity compared to others. This research compares 31 BPD patients to 27 healthy controls in order to compare their Theory of Mind. They used a test called "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" that consists of 36 black and white images of peoples eyes. The participants were then supposed to identify the emotion that the eyes where supposed to show. Results of the study showed that no difference was between the groups in their mind-reading accuracy. The BPD group did, however, show greater confidence in their answers than the control group. These high-confidence answers might be descriptive of the social interactions of BPD patients and contribute to their high rate of interpersonal conflicts since it is rigid and hard to change. Even a wrong answer with a lower confidence might be more beneficial to social relations since it prompts further reasoning processes and opens the possibility for a revised answer.

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