I have just viewed your video on Critique of Borderline Personality Disorder. A really excellent video, and thank you for your work. There is one aspect of this diagnosis that you do not talk about, and that is sexism and the disproportionate use of this diagnosis for women. I think that this comes down to 3 possible reasons, maybe more: 1. Sexist expectations of women that do not allow women to be angry and to not be nurturing. So if they are angry and not nurturing they must be severely pathological = BPD and not some less pejorative diagnosis. (This is true whether they have a trauma background or just are not nurturing by temperament. If the therapist is sexist, this will be regarded as pathological.) 2. If the patient is a good-looking young woman with a male therapist, and the male therapist feels sexually attracted to her, he can shift the blame for his inappropriate feelings to the patient by labelling her BPD, "communicating" her sexual attraction to him through her countertransference--really his projection of his sexual desire onto her--etc. etc. (Notice that whether the female patient actually feels sexually attracted to the therapist or not is not part of the equation. There has been an actual study that shows that the more attractive a man finds a woman, the more likely he thinks that she is sexually attracted to him. "I want sex with her therefore she must want sex with me.") 3. Unstable relationships. You described one way that relationships can be unstable due to the trauma background of the patient. But women grow up in a highly sexist world, and if they react to the sexist expectations placed on them, that can also create "unstable" relationships. (Like being angry when hit by a sexist trope. The sexist person doing this doesn't see themselves as doing anything to provoke that anger.) If they have an abusive boyfriend, that can look like an "unstable" relationship to a therapist looking to make this diagnosis. There are so many ways to create "unstable" relationships in our sexist world without it being a problem residing somehow in the woman. Yes, I was given this diagnosis by a sexist therapist and all three of the above things were present. But the diagnosis was really due to #2, and the rest were just icing on the cake, so to speak. Therapy with him was a constant diminishment of my intelligence, which did not send up red flags because I was getting the same from all sides. For example, my failure to panic over a comprehensive exam (because he'd panicked over his) was a sign of pathology in me, per him. I passed the exam. My failure to panic was really as sign that I was smarter than him, but of course he could never admit that. (This was only one of many indicators, which he never seems to quite grasp. I see it now, looking back.) So my intelligence and accurate assessment of my preparation had to be pathologized. In "therapy" where the patient is constantly being put down by the therapist (who is not aware of what he is doing due to sexism) is not going to produce a good result long term, so that is another impetus for the therapist to label the patient with BPD, which as you say, blames the patient for the therapist's inability to help her. That can be a fourth reason.