Transactionality and People with Borderline Personality Disorder

What is it about?

In this paper, I propose philosophical reflections related to pragmatism and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), based on the idea that human beings have the capacity to transform both their environments and themselves through their transactional actions._x000D_ I show that invalidation actions, including extreme cases such as child sexual abuse, are transactional actions that affect and transform people, leading many to develop borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, I argue that it is possible to go beyond the transactional actions suffered. I sustain that Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can be understood in philosophical terms by recovering Dewey's notion of experience, according to which individuals can be aware of their emotions without being determined by them. The BPD individual's awareness of their bodily felt emotions, as well as their actions, enables their transformation into an agent capable of self-regulation through habits and consciousness._x000D_

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