God's Ruthless Embrace: Religious Belief in Three Women with Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

This exploratory study was designed to determine if three people with the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) viewed religion in characteristic and unique ways. The data was analyzed using Object Relations Theory, Attachment Theory, and an integrated cognitive, affect, and object relations theory. I concluded that the participants shared a faith style that resulted from an early developmental failure and that their image and response to God and the moral universe were a re-enactment of the dysfunctional mother/infant dyad. Specifically, God's character was seen as (1) self-evident and inescapable and (2) stationary and large. God was envisioned (3) as a person who is (4) magical; (5) inexplicable, and therefore, unreliable. Participants believed that (6) God's task was to provide and that (7) God created a moral universe. Their responses had an intense and desperate quality, were typified by ambivalence, and emphasized a power differential. Finally, the women's relationship with God took the form of a deal: if she was dependent, then God would provide. The interface between BPD and psychological and spiritual well-being is discussed and a tentative application of the findings is made to the field of mental health nursing. I suggest that an understanding of BPD religious constructs and the sensitive application of a few principles can contribute to the spiritual and psychological well-being of the BPD inpatient.