About this item
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by unstable moods, negative self-image, dangerous impulsivity, and tumultuous relationships. Many people with BPD excel in academics and careers while revealing erratic, self-destructive, and sometimes violent behavior only to those with whom they are intimate. Others have trouble simply holding down a job or staying in school. Overcoming Borderline Personality Disorder is a compassionate and informative guide to understanding this profoundly unsettling-and widely misunderstood-mental illness, believed to affect approximately 6% of the general population. Rather than viewing people with BPD as manipulative opponents in a bitter struggle, or pitying them as emotional invalids, Valerie Porr cites cutting-edge science to show that BPD is a true neurobiological disorder and not, as many come to believe, a character flaw or the result of bad parenting.
About the Author
Valerie Porr, M.A.,Ms. Porr is President/Founder of the Treatment and Research Advancements National Association for Personality Disorder (TARA NAPD), a not for profit education and advocacy organization representing consumers, families, and providers affected by BPD. She is the author of Overcoming BPD, a Family Guide for Healing and Change, (Oxford University Press, August 2010,) co-author of New Hope for People with BPD, (Bockian, N, Porr, V 2002) co-editor of the BPD Journal of the California Alliance of the Mentally Ill and has published numerous articles on family experiences and BPD advocacy issues. She is intensively trained in Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) and has developed a curriculum combining DBT and Mentalization teaching family members how to help their loved ones with BPD while helping themselves. Ms. Porr conducts educational seminars and Family DBT Coping Skills Workshops, trains family leaders, speaks at family and professional conferences, and has coordinated BPD research conferences with the support of the National Institute of Mental Health. She operates the only BPD Helpline and Resource and Referral service in the US, affording her the opportunity to speak with and collect data from thousands of people with BPD and their family members.Ms. Porr has a family consultation practice.She is also an artist who was a successful clothing designer and businesswoman and has taught fashion business at Parson's School of Design and biology and the sciences at high school level.
