Mental Health Dictionary – Letter B

Uploaded 6/29/2023, approx. 3 minute read

Summary

Sam Vaknin discusses the letter B in his Mental Health Dictionary series. He covers topics such as blocking, borderline personality disorder, and the Borderline Personality Organization Scale. He provides detailed descriptions of the symptoms and behaviors associated with BPD, including unstable relationships, impulsive behavior, and mood swings. Vaknin also mentions his plans to continue the series with the letter C.

Tags

Okay, so the letter after A happens to be B. It’s a mental health dictionary, the letter B.

Now I’ve opened a new playlist on the channel, surprisingly called Mental Health Dictionary. I’m going to upload there, I’m going to add all the various letters, A, B, C, D.

You see, I know the alphabet, and when it’s all done, I’m going to issue a single video compilation of all the letters so that you can download it and have your own personal Wackenin Mental Health Dictionary.

Okay, my name is Sam Vaknin, I’m the author of “Alignant Self-Love: Narcissism, Revisited.” I’m a former visiting professor of psychology and currently on the faculty of SIAS, and straight to the letter B. That is, if I find it.

Okay, here we are. Blocking, halted, frequently interrupted speech to the point of incoherence indicates a parallel disruption of thought processes. The patient appears to try hard to remember what it was that he or she was saying or thinking as if they lost the thread of conversation.

And the big one, borderline personality disorder, also abbreviated as BPD, a controversial mental health diagnosis in the cluster B of personality disorders, the erratic, dramatic cluster.

Borderlines are characterized by stormy, short-lived and unstable relationships matched by wildly fluctuating labile self-image and emotional expression, unstable affect.

Some scholars suggest that BPD is merely Emotionally Disregulated Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emotionally Disregulated Complex Trauma.

Borderlines are impulsive and reckless. Their sexual conduct is frequently unsafe. They binge eat, gamble, drive or shop carelessly and/or are substance abusers. There is recklessness present.

Borderlines also display self-destructive and self-defeating behaviors such as suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, gestures or threats and self-mutilation or self-injury.

The spectre of abandonment provokes anxiety in the borderline as do feelings of engulfment or enmeshment.

Borderlines make frantic and usually counterproductive efforts to preempt or prevent both conditions, abandonment and engulfment.

Codependent acts are followed by idealization and then by an abrupt devaluation of the borderline’s partner and this is known as approachavoidancerepetitioncompulsion and splitting.

Borderlines have pronounced mood swings, shifting between dysphoria, sadness or depression and euphoria, manic self-confidence and paralyzing anxiety, irritability and then indifference.

Borderlines are often angry and violent, usually getting into physical fights. They throw temper tantrums and have frightening rage attacks.

Under stress, some borderlines become briefly psychotic or develop transient paranoid ideations and ideas of reference, the erroneous conviction that one is the focus of derision and malicious gossip.

Dissociative symptoms such as amnesia, derialization and depersonalization are common, losing stretches of time or objects and forgetting events or facts with emotional content.

Borderline Personality Organization Scale (BPO) a diagnostic test developed in 1985. It sorts the responses of respondents into 30 relevant scales. It indicates the existence of identity disturbance, primitive defenses and deficient reality testing and that is all for today in the letter B.

Looking forward to the letter C which follows even in my world the letter B.

To be or not to be, that is the C section.

Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

Summary Link:

https://vakninsummaries.com/ (Full summaries of Sam Vaknin’s videos)

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/mediakit.html (My work in psychology: Media Kit and Press Room)

Bonus Consultations with Sam Vaknin or Lidija Rangelovska (or both) http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/ctcounsel.html

http://www.youtube.com/samvaknin (Narcissists, Psychopaths, Abuse)

http://www.youtube.com/vakninmusings (World in Conflict and Transition)

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com (Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited)

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/cv.html (Biography and Resume)

Summary

Sam Vaknin discusses the letter B in his Mental Health Dictionary series. He covers topics such as blocking, borderline personality disorder, and the Borderline Personality Organization Scale. He provides detailed descriptions of the symptoms and behaviors associated with BPD, including unstable relationships, impulsive behavior, and mood swings. Vaknin also mentions his plans to continue the series with the letter C.

Tags

If you enjoyed this article, you might like the following:

Narcissism: Birth Order, Siblings (Literature Review)

The discussion explored the likelihood of siblings developing narcissistic personality disorder, emphasizing that birth order and being an only child have minimal impact on the development of pathological narcissism, which is likely influenced more by genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Studies indicate that both overt and covert narcissism can arise

Read More »

Sexualizing Anxiety and Anxiolytic Sex: Misattribution of Arousal

The concept of misattribution of arousal, where anxiety and sexual arousal are often confused or interchangeably misidentified, impacting emotional and physiological responses. It highlighted how anxiety can be mistaken for sexual attraction and vice versa, with both conditions influencing behavior and perception, including gender roles and narcissism. Various studies were

Read More »

Artificial Human Intelligence: Brain as Quantum Computer?

The speaker discussed their new project focused on developing a mathematical specification for an implantable PLL chip that would enable the brain to perceive the entire quantum wave function, including all collapsed and non-collapsed states, effectively transforming the brain into a powerful quantum computer. They argued that the brain is

Read More »

Narcissist’s Idealization in Grandiosity Bubble

Sam Vaknin explained the concept of grandiosity bubbles as defensive fantasy constructs narcissists create to maintain an inflated self-image and avoid confronting reality, especially during transitions between sources of narcissistic supply. These bubbles serve as temporary, protective isolations where the narcissist can recover from narcissistic injury without experiencing humiliation or

Read More »

Your Defensive Identification with the Aggressor (Abuser)

The psychological concept of “identifying with the aggressor,” where victims of abuse unconsciously adopt traits and behaviors of their abusers as a defense mechanism to cope with trauma and gain a sense of control. This process, rooted in childhood development and psychoanalytic theory, often leads to maladaptive coping, perpetuates the

Read More »

Back to Our Future: Neo-Feudalism is End of Enlightenment (Starts 01:27)

The speaker discussed the ongoing societal shift from Enlightenment ideals—science, liberal democracy, and bureaucracy—toward a resurgence of feudalism characterized by theocracy, oligarchy, and totalitarianism. This regression reflects widespread disillusionment with elitism and institutional failure, leading to a nihilistic period where the masses reject Enlightenment values in favor of authoritarian models

Read More »

Healthy Self-regulation vs. Dysregulation

Sam Vaknin explores the concept of self-regulation, emphasizing that it primarily concerns controlling behavior rather than internal processes, and highlights its significance in goal attainment and impulse control. He critiques the traditional notion of the “self” in self-regulation, noting the fluidity of identity and the social context’s role, and discusses

Read More »

When YOU Adopt Slave Mentality in Narcissist’s Shared Fantasy

The speaker explored the concept of slave mentality in victims of narcissistic abuse, explaining how narcissists enforce a shared fantasy that suppresses victims’ autonomy and identity. The speaker emphasized that victims often succumb to this mentality because it offers a deceptive sense of safety, predictability, and unconditional love akin to

Read More »

10 Signs: YOU are Broken, Damaged, Scarred

Sam Vaknin discusses the psychological patterns and clinical features common among damaged and broken individuals, emphasizing the impacts of trauma, mistrust, emotional detachment, and difficulties with intimacy and boundaries. He highlights defense mechanisms such as hypervigilance, emotional numbness, conflict avoidance, perfectionism, and the harsh inner critic, explaining how these behaviors

Read More »

Narcissism is So Hard to Believe! (with Yulia Kasprzhak, Clinician)

In-depth analysis of narcissistic personality disorder, emphasizing the distinction between narcissists, psychopaths, and borderlines, highlighting narcissists as delusional and psychotic with impaired reality testing and confabulation rather than manipulative liars. It discussed the complexities of narcissistic relationships, including “hoovering,” the dynamics of narcissistic abuse, and the detrimental impact on partners,

Read More »