Abuso verbale e Disturbo Borderline di Personalità. Aspetti teorici e osservazioni cliniche

[Autom. eng. transl.] Introduction. Many clinical studies highlight a strong correlation between Borderline Personality Disorder and forms of neglect and abuse attributable to the patient's childhood. In particular, verbal abuse is considered to be both an important predictive factor and a constant presence throughout the life of patients suffering from this disorder. Method. The clinical histories of two patients with Borderline Personality Disorder were examined, hypothesizing to find an empirical comparison with the presence of this type of abuse both in infancy and adulthood. An in-depth assessment was conducted using BPD-Scale, SWAP-200, SCID-I, SCID-II, BPRS and VGF. A questionnaire was also administered to assess the verbal abuse: it is based on the twelve categories that a careful review of the scarce literature in this regard suggests; it also takes into consideration the sound intensity and the tone of the parents. Results. In both cases examined, the communication style of one of the parents (the father) is characterized by the presence of the following categories of verbal abuse: guilt, humiliation, denigration, perfectionism and negative forecasts. Differences between the two parents are also observed with respect to sound intensity and tone of the voice. On the contrary, no significant differences between childhood and adulthood seem to be detectable in the perception of this type of abuse. Conclusions. The present clinical study confirms that the presence of verbal abuse forms an important factor of suffering in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. The different attitude of the two caregivers is also confirmed, which often the reference literature indicates: in this case (and usually more frequently) a more critical and distancing father and a more involved and symbiotic mother. However, further confirmatory studies are desirable.