Genetic Aspects of the Borderline Conditions

While the question of genetic influences on schizophrenic and other psychotic syndromes has been intensively studied and documented, scant attention has been paid to the role of such basic biological factors in the borderline conditions. The present survey will address itself specifically and exclusively to the genetic factors that contribute to the biological substratum—whether factors, qualities, or specific vulnerabilities—that in some combination with environmental and developmental influences result in the forms of borderline pathology. Consequently, we are addressing ourselves to the implications of the science of genetics in the strictest sense, rather than “psychogenetics,” which concerns itself with nongenetic environmental influences.

Although the contribution of such biological genetic components in the borderline syndromes is rarely discussed, it remains a persistent, but vague underlying assumption. While such an assumption is often stated, although in non-specific terms, it is just as often a vague but unstated assumption of theoretical approaches to borderline conditions. For example, Kernberg's reconstruction of the borderline personality emphasizes the high titer of pregenital aggression, particularly oral conflicts, as a given in borderline pathology. The origins of such aggression are not explored but are presumed to be a result of biological and genetic determinants. A similar case can be made for other specifiable defects considered as the roots of borderline defects, whether they be identified as ego defects, narcissism, etc.

The more common attitude among contemporary theorists is that genetic and environmental factors complement each other in varying degrees in bringing about a variety of developmental or pathological outcomes. This attitude tends to shift the focus of concern to the study of how these factors interact, rather than in setting