This is a good primer for those wanting to know about borderline personality disorder. The SET-UP acronym that is encouraged to be used is an effective communication technique, though this is not a manual of how to treat BPD but rather informational. Parts of the book seemed to lament gender equality as we know it and even appeared to pose the idea that what are considered traditional gender roles changing as contributing to the development of BPD. The use of celebrities when describing characteristics and facets of BPD felt gratuitous, though that could be my sensitivities showing. I found myself wanting to know more about the people in the case studies, which is a credit to the authors. I also appreciate the author explaining why they chose to use “BPD person” as opposed to “a person diagnosed with BPD.”

I received an ARC courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

I received a complimentary eBook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you are ever curious about Borderline Personality Disorder or looking for a better understanding of it for any reason this is probably one of the best (but in all fairness a bit outdated in language) books that helps explain the thinking some borderlines have. As someone with BPD that was the case for me anyway. The examples are useful especially when explaining various behaviors and ways of thinking that probably do not make sense to those unfamiliar with the disorder. Even better about this particular book on the subject is everything is not riddled with a ton of jargon that would make it hard to understand.

I believe there is a lot of great stuff in here but with how different we look at mental illness now and the more we are starting to understand it - there absolutely should be a newer update that is perhaps not this book continuing to be revised. I'd recommend borrowing a copy if you want to read it but it is not something you NEED on your bookshelf.

First and foremost, thank you SO much for this copy. This will not be posted on my blog, but it will be posted around my mental health office.

I am a mental health therapist who works with a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Personality disorders are prominent with patients especially those with BPD. This book is WONDERFUL and so helpful to the field and I have told all of my coworkers about this.

The only drawback was too much history on BPD, if you are a therapist, you already know all about it.

Really enjoyed how to communicate and confront behaviors and recommendations to other reads and research available.

Having read the last edition of this book, I was very excited to read this new one. It is an incredibly powerful book, and offers clarity where so many texts on borderline personality do not. It allows interesting ways of looking at the condition, and encourages a positive approach to current theory and practice.

I appreciate the insight into BPD and those who live with it. It's filled with information, but not so bogged down with technical terms so as to make it hard for laypeople to read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

So I felt mildly insulted from the start. The intro and dryly presented index failed to draw me in. I just don't think it is fair to reduce a disorder to such an odd statement. I cannot imagine a person who suspects they have BPD feeling comfortable with it when they are seeking insight. I find it hard to respect the opinions of an author who would title their book this way and alienate some of their most important readership. Perhaps they are of the opinion that those people are not as important as their friends and family?

I read the first version of this many years ago while dealing with a child that clearly suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. I was so happy to have a reference for how to understand this disorder and find a way to help my child and my family cope with the fall out. This is an excellent tool and I am happy it has been updated.

I Hate You – Don’t Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality by Jerold J. Kreisman and Hal Strauss is the new third edition of a book that was first published in 1989. It’s probably one of the more widely recognized books about borderline personality disorder (BPD).

There was a note to readers at the beginning about the language the authors use. The authors had chosen to continue using “the borderline” to refer to an individual with BPD. They acknowledged that it could be viewed as reducing a person to a stigmatizing label, but they couldn’t come up with anything better that was brief but didn’t suggest that the borderline personality was something that possessed the individual.

It wouldn’t have been my choice, but their explanation sounded like they’d put some thought into it. However, there may have been less thought than I was prepared to give the authors credit for, as the first chapter talked about a woman being “afflicted with” BPD, which pokes a big hole in the explanation. There were also repeated references to “the borderline syndrome,” which, if Google is any indication, is a term that was used in the 1970s and ’80s.

Some concepts were framed in ways that seemed unlikely to be helpful. The authors introduced the “borderline empathy paradox” by stating that people with BPD sometimes lack true empathy. They went on to explain that the empathy paradox involves heightened sensitivity to emotional cues from others, but decreased capacity to process that information and figure out what to do with it. Framing that as a lack of true empathy of the authors’ explanations miss the mark. In trying to explain the “borderline empathy paradox,” the authors stated that people with BPD sometimes lack true empathy. That’s really not a good way of putting it. The empathy paradox is basically that BPD involves heightened intake of the emotional stuff other people are putting out, but decreased capacity to process that information to know what to do with it. Framing that as a lack of true empathy seems unhelpful and likely to alienate readers with BPD, even though the concept itself is very relevant information.

The choice of descriptors often left a lot to be desired. For example, the authors used the term manipulativeness, which is unfortunate, as that type of framing of maladaptive attempts to get needs met is a key element of the stigma around BPD. The real-world examples of people with BPD that were presented tended to involve more subjective evaluation than necessary, including overuse of “attractive.”

The book offered the SET-UP system for effectively communicating with someone with BPD, and this was incorporated in example scenarios used throughout the book. SET-UP involves:

-Support (“I” statements of concern)
-Empathy (“You” statements that validate)
-Truth (the reality of the situation, emphasizing accountability for oneself, and starting to look for solutions)
-Understanding borderline symptoms and how they affect behaviour
-Perseverance (staying consistent in providing support)

SET-UP was also included in the tips for family members on how to communicate more effectively with the individual with BPD. The authors urged family members to always take suicidal threats seriously and seek professional intervention, which I thought was a very helpful recommendation.

While the first half of the book focused on the nature of the BPD, the later part of the book addressed treatment, including therapy and medication. This seems to be where much of the updating for this third edition, and the chapter on psychotherapeutic approaches covers the various specialized psychotherapeutic approaches that have been developed for BPD, including DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy), STEPPS (Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving), transference-focused psychotherapy, and mentalization-based therapy. It sounds like this part was brand new to this edition.

I thought these chapters on treatment were well done, and they represented a more modern, balanced view of BPD compared to the way it was represented in earlier chapters. I particularly liked the authors’ emphasis on the importance of helping people with BPD to learn to accept both themselves and their uncomfortable emotions, and the explanation of how this can start to short-circuit the feeling bad about feeling bad loop.

The book contains a somewhat odd mix of both cringeworthy and insightful. As an example of the latter, “Borderline personality disorder is a complex tapestry, richly embroidered with innumerable intersecting threads.” The sense of reading two different books in one made me wonder if the insightful bits are new in the third edition, while the cringier bits towards the beginning, are a holder from the earlier editions. Without having a copy of the 1st edition, there’s no way for me to know for sure. However, there did seem to be a pretty clear divide.

Looking at the 1- and 2-star reviews of the earlier editions on Goodreads, some of the criticisms still hold true with the new edition, but I get the sense that this edition has made substantial improvements. In a number of these negative reviews, the reviewers had given up reading partway through; with this edition, at least, I found the second half of the book substantially better than the first half, and the bits that people are most likely to find offensive are stacked heavily into the first two chapters. If you have BPD and read this book, I would suggest skipping those two chapters altogether, as they probably don’t have enough that will be of value to you to be worth the annoyance they will likely cause.

If, as I suspect, the earlier chapters were mostly left alone in the updating process, I think the book would have been better overall if the authors had brought some of the insights that could be found in the later chapters into the earlier part as well. If the first half of the book contains dodgy bits, there’s the risk of turning readers off, and perhaps losing them altogether. I think it also speaks to a need for further editing work that I came away from this book feeling like I’d read two different books combined into one: one part from 1989, and the other from 2021.

There are definitely strengths to this book, but the weaknesses detract from the overall usefulness, so on the whole, I can’t say that I recommend it.



I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Sometimes a good chunk of the battle is just feeling seen. This is a great book for those that struggle with BPD and just need to understand the crazy world in which we exist. I Hate You—Don’t Leave me leaves no stone unturned in regards to this beast of a disorder. I’d highly recommend this book to the newly diagnosed or those that just need a reminder that you’re doing the best you can with what you’ve been given.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Very interesting perspective on mental health issues. I did truly enjoy this book, but simultaneously it was very educating. Lovely book and highly recommended

ABSOLETELY HATED THIS!!!! This book offers no sympathy with people suffering from BPD and it is outdated AF. Did not like the author's unilateral, pessimistic POV and judgments. This is not a warm, compassionate, or fuzzy self-help/guide to borderline personality disorder. Just awful. Skim read most of this.

Cannot recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, Jerold J Kreisman and Penguin Randome House TarcherPerigee (TR) for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/7/21

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

I am a psychotherapist and have always recommended this book as the gold standard for people who have a BPD person in their lives- the updates are just the icing on the cake.