Kim - reviewed on 11/4/2010 + 40 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

In general, I love the "Dummies" books but this one I found confusing and perhaps a bit disturbing. The book doesn't seem to take into consideration BPD from the sufferer's point of view very much. Rather, it focuses quite a bit on the people around the person with BPD and how they suffer (including therapists). While saying that people with BPD don't intentionally set out to hurt others with their words and behaviors, the authors also point out, at length, all the words (or lack thereof) and behaviors (or lack thereof) that make BPD people exquisite abusers. Sometimes just the wording of a sentence made me cringe, for example, "You know you're a good person and everything, but when a new friend starts slinging out flattery like slop to a pig, you may have a problem," in reference to someone who has unwittingly befriended a BPD person and is now being set up for abuse. And of course the "Dummies" books have those little one-page cartoons dispersed throughout, but in this case, given the nature of the topic, I felt as if they were intended to make fun of the disorder and the turmoil it causes for the sufferer.

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