So....I've been thinking about Valerie Porr's book. My verdict:
1. It isn't very accessible, really. Definitely not readable when you're in crisis and needing help. There are times when I absolutely could not have read it.
2. She repeatedly says that borderlines are in constant pain. I didn't even want to think about that--didn't want to take my own internal temperature....Just not a helpful thing to say............But, she says it, I believe because-----(next point)
3. This book is really written for a family approach, whether we're talking spouse, parents, children.....

The excellent thing about this book, though, is that it asks others to change in their behavior to us, just as they would change in their behavior to someone who is now in a wheelchair: you reconfigure your house to make it accessible and comfortable to them; you try to see they world through their eyes, which lets you see, then, what it is they need.

Very good descriptions of the borderline mind--also, discusses the findings of the physical differences in borderline brains.

Very worth reading, but a slow go.....and depressing at time. Validating and compassionate, but...depressing. I have to say, though, that any book about us is likely to be so.

I think when we read books about bpd, we should probably have support available--correctives to the sad moods we're likely to fall into....