A trauma-related dissociation model may explain psychopathology of the difficult-to-treat BPD patients

There is a difficult-to-treat core group with severe psychopathology among borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients. Treatment advance for this group calls for extended etiological knowledge. I propose an evolutionarilybased model of trauma-related dissociation that will help explain psychopathology of severe BPD cases and has not yet been investigated in this area. Clinical and neurobiological evidence shows that trauma-related dissociation is a significant factor in the BPD etiology and indicates the model validity. Further evidence and model elaboration should be obtained from clinical and psychophysiological assessments of dissociative phenomena in BPD.