Existing research (MacMurray, 1976; Teitelman, Glass, Blyn & Jenning, 1979; Saloff & Millward, 1983) has suggested that mothers of borderline personality disorder patients exhibit the following characteristics: emotional aloofness (coldness); emotional instability, and controlling behavior. This study assesses and compares these three characteristics in three samples of mothers: (1) mothers of patients with borderline personality disorder; (2) mothers of patients with schizophrenia; and (3) mothers of non-patient normals.
The conceptual model on which this study rests can be related to linkage between the characteristics of the mothers of borderline and the developmental impact they exert on their offspring. In this regard, it can be noted that a number of maternal personality characteristics and traits have been proposed as causative in the development of borderline psychopathology in offspring. Proposed characteristics and traits include: emotional instability (Stern, 1983); unresolved conflicts over separation-individuation manifesting themselves in dysfunctional parent-child interaction (Mahler, 1968); emotional coldness (Stern, 1973); oral aggression (Kernberg, 1977); withdrawal of emotional availability over autonomous child behavior paired with reinforcement of child's dependent behaviors (Masterson, 1972); inability of mother to provide emotional support (Kohut, 1977), intrusiveness and over-protectiveness (Chessick, 1966).
MacMurray has suggested that the existing research on the personalities of mothers of borderline patients suggests two clear personality types, only one of which is typically exhibited by mothers. The most frequently or typically exhibited personality type mentioned by MacMurray is selected for study here because its high level of occurrence makes it likely that findings will generalize to a larger subset of the mothers of borderline patients population and therefore, findings will have more extens...