The principal aim of this study was to assess personal relatedness and
attachment patterns in 12-month-old infants of mothers with borderline
personality disorder (BPD). We also evaluated maternal intrusive
insensitivity toward the infants in semistructured play. We videotaped 10
mother–infant dyads with borderline mothers and 22 dyads where the
mothers were free from psychopathology, in three different settings: a
modification of Winnicott's Set Situation in which infants faced an
initially unresponsive (“still-face”) stranger, who
subsequently tried to engage the infant in a game of give and take; the
Strange Situation of Ainsworth and Wittig; and a situation in which
mothers were requested to teach their infants to play with miniature
figures and a toy train. In relation to a set of a priori predictions, the
results revealed significant group differences as follows: (a) compared
with control infants, toward the stranger the infants of mothers with BPD
showed lower levels of “availability for positive engagement,”
lower ratings of “behavior organization and mood state,” and a
lower proportion of interpersonally directed looks that were positive; (b)
in the Strange Situation, a higher proportion (8 out of 10) of infants of
borderline mothers were categorized as Disorganized; and (c) in play,
mothers with BPD were rated as more “intrusively insensitive”
toward their infants. The results are discussed in relation to hypotheses
concerning the interpersonal relations of women with BPD, and possible
implications for their infants' development.This research was generously supported by grants from the
Winnicott Trust, the Hayward Foundation, and the Baily Thomas Charitable
Fund, as well as by a Wellcome Fellowship to Matthew Patrick and an NIH
Fellowship to Lisa Crandell. We also received support from the UK National
Health R&D Budget. We are indebted to the mothers and infants who
agreed to take part, Lynne Murray for inspiration and guidance, Lucy
Chiemielski and Leezah Hertzmann for their help with ratings of
videotapes, Betty Carlson and Alan Sroufe for their invaluable and very
generous input, and Jessica Meyer for her helpful comments and
suggestions.