BPD is a mental disorder (please read AAPEL's federation site). It is therefore "logical" in the diagnosis DSM criterion to highlight the "dysfunctions" of those who suffer from it rather than the opposite (please see shortl AAPEL test)

I feel this vision very "unfair" (even if it is essential from a medical point of view). Unfair because it doesn't show the "positive" side of a BPD person.

I know that it is not really normal practice to define a person suffering from BPD (himself or herself) in a “positive” way (except for some who are in denial or splitting and who are trying to show an "image").
It is precisely for that very reason that I started to seek a positive vision of the borderline disorder , that I have named "emophane"^TM..

 

Alain Tortosa Psychotherapist and founder president of the AAPELTM federation, AforPEL's member, Ebelpsyc, book's author "le trouble de la personnalité borderline (victime de ses émotions)" Archisoft publishing firm

If I'm not mistaken, this word doesn't exist and it is directly come from my imaginary.

The word emophane thus comes from the prefix "emo" as in "emotion" and from the Greek suffix "phan" meaning "appearance", "to show" (like in the word "theophany which mean a divine manifestation")

Emophane then, etymologically speaking, means:  "Appearance or manifestation of emotions"

An emophane person is someone who corresponds to the criteria and canons of emophany.

On my own experience, BPD people have almost all (at least inside of them) of the following characters traits:

Please note: The question does not concern the possible negative consequences of such traits (it is not always "funny" to be hypersensitive).Nor does it concern the possible inability to put these traits into practice because of the disorder, denial or depression. I can for example be very sensitive inside, but nevertheless give the impression that I'm as cold as marble... nonetheless, the fact remains that sensitivity in one of my character traits.
 

Altruism (natural tendency to love and help one's fellowmen)

Self-derision (capacity to laugh at oneself)

Kind-hearted

Creativity

Curiosity (desire to understand, to know, to learn)

Empathy (capacity to put oneself in someone's else's position and to feel what he / she is feeling)(e.g.  if I see a person who is suffering, I will start to feel her suffering in I don't reject my emotions)

Enthusiasm  (High emotion with pleasure expression)

Very demanding of oneself

Strength of character (e.g. To be able to endure things that many others would not be capable of enduring for long)

Generosity (tendency to give without calculating)

Modesty (absence of vanity or pride)

Naivety ("Childish innocence")

Open-mindedness ("willing to consider ideas and opinions that are new or different to your own")

Probity ("Uprightness, integrity, honesty", justice in a "moral" meaning)

Taking a new look at oneself ("ability to consider that our hypothesis or beliefs are potentially erroneous")

Sensitivity

(all rigths reserved)

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What is the connexion between "being emophane" and "having a borderline disorder"?

All this remains to be proven scientifically, but I think that emophane people are "at risk", not only of developing a borderline personality disorder  (read AAPEL's site)(the disorder generally appears at the beginning of adulthood but is "shaped" in the very first years of life) but probably also at risk of developing an avoidant personality disorder (read AAPEL's site).

To resume

• According to this theory, a person suffering from BPD is an "emophane" even if the person may, in some circumstances, behave like a non-emophane
• An "emophane" person may not suffer from any disorder, or he/she may have developed psychiatric disorders such as an avoidant personality disorder, a borderline personality disorder, etc.

One of the big fears of a BPD person is, in particular, "to lose oneself" in a therapy.(read AAPEL's site)

Many are those who think (wrongly) that it is their borderline disorder which made them what they are now...
Thus, some may violently reject the BPD diagnosis because in their head, they would no more be "me" but "my disorder" (a kind of "I'm not any more me because me, it's a disorder"), situation highly destabilizing...

Therefore they say, "if I'm sensitive it is because I have a borderline disorder"...  or "who would I be without this disorder?"

The truth is that "it is not because I suffer from a borderline disorder that I'm sensitive, but because I'm sensitive that I was in a population at risk to develop a BPD".
Therefore, "To Recover(read AAPEL's site)from the disorder is not to loose my sensitivity but only to get rid of my borderline disorder traits", there is then no risk to loose myself in a therapy

He/she would be, in theory, an emophane !
An emophane person, who has the possibility to use their emophane "qualities" both to serve's him/herself and others and no longer use them for his/her own self-destruction and other splittings.

No-one is denying the fact. Yes, it can hurt to be emophane, more especially, as the world in which we live tends to be "non-emophane".
But for all that:

• Wouldn't a "emophane" world be more "beautiful" (with less destruction, conflicts, wars)? I think so.
• To be emophane, isn't it to have "beautiful" values?  I think so.
• Should you then feel ashamed of being emophane?  I don't think so.

And if you had the choice between remaining emophane and becoming, with the wave of a magic wand, "non-emophane"...  Do you think that the non-emophane that you'd become could love himself?  I'm afraid not.

Then why consider it a "tragedy" to be "emophane" when if actual fact you can see this as a gift!

See Aapel's "emophane" page

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