“When I look at pictures from four years ago, I cannot believe that that is the same person I am now. I cannot understand what I thought or felt a year ago, I cannot imagine that person and I have anything in common….” This is a patient's statement from the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO; Clarkin et al. 2004). Can certain prototypical features be found that all patients located at borderline personality level have in common? Can a prototypical profile of borderline personality organization (BPO) be developed?

In this study a model of personality organization based on contemporary American object relations theory (Kernberg 1984; Kernberg and Caligor 2005),