‘Linguistic Shrapnel’: Inner speech in borderline personality disorder and its relevance for self-familiarity. A philosophical review
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences November 11, 2025 Philipp Schmidt-Boddy
Inner speech and self-talk in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can disrupt self-familiarity, contributing to a fragmented sense of self. A review of empirical studies on intrapersonal dialogicality, auditory verbal hallucinations, and self-talk in BPD shows that these linguistic processes likely generate and sustain experiences of self-estrangement. Connecting these findings with philosophical accounts of self-familiarity, the paper argues that overt or covert dialogues within oneself can either support or undermine a stable sense of self. Understanding linguistic self-relation is thus critical for therapeutic change and recovery in BPD.