Pastoral Counseling and Personality Disorders

Borderline personality disorder (or BPD) is one of the ten personality disorders identified in the DSM-IV-TR (including paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive). It is a “cluster B” disorder meaning that individuals who have one of these disorders have difficulty with impulse control and emotional regulation. Antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic disorders comprise the remaining cluster B disorders. BPD is viewed by many as a controversial diagnosis (Paris 2010, pp. 25–43). As one woman who lives with the disorder describes it, borderline personality disorder is “the diagnosis that dares not speak its name” (Van Gelder 2010, p. 16). In this brief discussion of personality disorders and pastoral counseling, I will focus on BPD as an example of a disorder often associated with “clergy killers” or those individuals in a congregation who possess the ability to stir up unhealthy or abnormal conflict in...