The concept of the borderline state is common to psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry. You can often hear it on TV or in the movies, but without explanation. So what is behind it?
Borderline concept
The conceptual apparatus of such areas of knowledge as psychology and psychiatry includes the concept of a borderline state. It is common to these sciences, since it lies on the border between them. Hence the presence in the term of the root "border" (conventionally).
Psychology gives way to psychiatry precisely where the concept of deviation appears. They fundamentally differ precisely in the fact that psychology deals with the norm, and psychiatry deals with pathology. However, in the world of people and their psyche, everything is not as transparent and mathematically simple as in the natural sciences. There is no clear boundary between a normal person and a psychopath, therefore there is the concept of a borderline state. They talk about him when a person and his behavior no longer quite correspond to the norm, but it is too early to talk about pathology. Such a person balances on a thin and fragile rope of the border between the norm and deviation from it. One of the clearest signs that a person is still normal is his awareness of the inadequacy of his behavior. A completely disturbed psyche will not allow the wearer to realize his flaw.
In psychology, in the section of characterology, there is the concept of an accentuated personality. It is used to assess the severity of character. Every normal person, as a bearer of the psyche, has a character that has grown on the basis of an innate temperament and acquired in the process of development and upbringing. Some character traits in different people can be especially pronounced. In this case, psychologists talk about the type of accentuation of the character of a particular person. The accentuation of the personality is manifested only in life situations specific to it. There are eleven options for character accentuations (according to the theory of A. E. Lichko).
Is the accentuated personality the norm?
Psychopathy or deviation begins where accentuation ends. The figure shows how the severity of some character traits can go through the stages of norm and pathology. However, the norm includes an average character with a smoothed profile, and an accentuated one with some sharpened personality traits. Both are perfectly normal. By the way, most of the outstanding personalities were accentuated personalities, and often even in a borderline state. Only the extreme severity of individual character traits, devoid of awareness and manifesting itself not in individual situations, but in all spheres of a person's life, loses the title of accentuation and becomes a pathology, having passed through a borderline state.
