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Exploring barriers to compassionate acts in individuals with borderline personality disorder : a critical literature review
Street-Mattox, Catrin Broome, Matthew R Maji, Sucharita Ng, Fiona Griffiths, Lowri Jordan, Gerald
Street-Mattox, Catrin
Broome, Matthew R
Maji, Sucharita
Ng, Fiona
Griffiths, Lowri
Jordan, Gerald
Abstract
This critical literature review explores the barriers that individuals with borderline personality disorder face when engaging in compassionate acts, including self-compassion, receiving compassion from others and expressing compassion towards others. Borderline personality disorder is characterised by emotional instability, impulsive behaviours and difficulties in maintaining stable relationships. Although compassionate acts are known to enhance recovery and well-being, individuals with borderline personality disorder often struggle with these behaviours. This review identifies several key barriers, including adverse childhood experiences, stigma and systemic discrimination, known as sanism, and internal challenges such as self-judgement, shame and fear of compassion. By synthesising findings from 29 studies, this review highlights the complex interplay between these factors and their impact on the ability of individuals with borderline personality disorder to engage in compassionate behaviours. The findings emphasise the need for personalised, trauma-informed therapeutic interventions and broader societal changes to foster a more compassionate environment for individuals with borderline personality disorder. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies, inclusion of individuals with lived experiences and exploring diverse sources of compassion to enhance understanding and support recovery in this population.
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2025
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Street-Mattox, C., Broome, M. R., Maji, S., Ng, F., Griffiths, L. & Jordan, G. (2025). Exploring barriers to compassionate acts in individuals with borderline personality disorder : a critical literature review. Personality and Mental Health, 19 (2), pp.e70020.
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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
© 2025 The Author(s). Personality and Mental Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.