#64. Is Borderline Personality Caused by Trauma?

About this episode

This episode examines the evidence behind the assumption that Borderline Personality Disorder is a trauma response and its implications for therapy.

Borderline Personality Disorder is routinely explained as trauma response. In this episode, I look at the evidence behind that assumption. It matters because bad causal stories produce bad therapy. Become a Psychobabble Insider and join us for Live Clinical Sessions twice a month! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: Hannah Spier, MD

Topics covered

• Borderline Personality Disorder
• trauma response
• therapy
• mental health
• causal stories

Keywords

• Borderline Personality Disorder
• trauma
• therapy
• mental health
• causal stories

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Borderline Personality Disorder, Psychobabble

More episodes of Psychobabble

• #66. How Borderline Traits Develop and Why They're Increasing Now · April 29, 2026 · 17 min
• #65. What Louis Theroux Refused to Show About the Manosphere | Janice Fiamengo, Tom Golden & James Nuzzo · April 24, 2026 · 1h 10m
• #63. How to Screen for Borderline Traits · April 5, 2026 · 19 min
• #62. Borderline: The Female Version of Antisocial · March 29, 2026 · 20 min
• #61. Challenging the 'ADHD Was Always There' Narrative · March 25, 2026 · 26 min
• #60. The ADHD Surge Adult Women · March 22, 2026 · 22 min