Customer Reviews

Eclipses: Behind the Borderline Personality Disorder

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I purchased this, along with several other books, to try to find help for a loved one suffering from B.P.

This book was by far the easiest to read, and was far more insightful than the outdated "I Hate You-Don't Leave Me* Understanding the Borderline Personality" book (it isn't a bad book, but it is in dire need of updating).

Pros: Gives an excellent insider's view of what having Borderline Personality is like. Gives great case examples of real people who have been successful in their treatment of B.P. Gives an in-depth look, from the patientsf eyes, of DBT Dialectical Behavior Therapy; which has been shown to be effective in treating B.P. Easy to read, yet at the same time engaging.

Cons: Poorly organized, seems to jump around a bit much; too many acronyms make it difficult to remember who the author is referring to. Not a self-help manual or a guide to helping people with the disorder. More of a portrait of B.P. from an insiderfs perspective.

I recommend this book for anyone who is looking to better understand this disorder, as well as anyone with a loved one suffering from B.P. It will help dissolve many of the common stereotypes associated with the disorder.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to enroll in a long-term hospital program that specializes in B.P. The book may be a bit frustrating for those of you, who like me, are trying to orchestrate some level of decent care from the meager resources that are available.

It's worth reading, but remember that it is only a portrait of how a handful of women overcame their disorder in what sounds like an exceptional facility (which, sadly, has now been closed).

As a therapist, Melissa's personal accounts are inspiring and heartfelt. She presents many of the difficulties of this disorder in an understanding & compassionate way. Very happy to see her inclusion of Dialetic Behavior Therapy info & materials. However, I don't think the book is very well organized. Example: Chp. 2 on Inpatient Therapy seems a bit premature & could be frightening to clients who are new to the awareness of their diagnosis. There are examples (the one of the other patients using restraint on another patient) that if they are questionable, and I believe they are, shouldn't have been included. I would hesitate to recommend this book to my clients because of such examples although I am always looking for new materials to inspire hope in my clients and to get their cooperation for the use of DBT materials. I would encourage Melissa to do a revised version looking at content organization, making the writing more fluid, and the use of appropriate helpful examples.

I'm the webowner of Borderline Personality Disorder Today. The author has some really good material in the book about DBT and how it has assisted her in her own recovery. I believe sharing her experiences as an in-patient at Highland Hospital are particularly important. However, the book focuses on only one aspect of recovery as if DBT is the *only* avenue there is to recovery from the BPD. Medication is not discussed which is extremely vital especially with what the research is saying about how helpful medications are in providing assistance with many of the BPD symptoms. The only thing I disagreed in the book was her statement "While disability is a godsend for many former patients who do not have sufficient financial resources, the public needs to be made aware that such a resource is an enabler rather than a tag of inability." I have read that as many as 33 % of BPDs are disabled, not because they want to be enabled, but because their illness has truly prevented them from sustaining a job. Would I recommend you buy the book? Yes, there is some good material there there that is important for BPD recovery.

Eclipse is a wonderful book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know about Borderline personality disorder. It describes the illness in a positive light, and explains what it is like to have this vicious disease. It is very obvious that the information given by Melissa Ford Thornton is due to personal experiences. She describes the pain a borderline suffers, and also the Joy and fear they feel at getting better. She truly informs people in a positive way.

Eclipses is an unusual mixture of a biography and a general information text that didn't quite work for me.

The author draws on her own and fellow patients' experiences of recovering from BPD in a DBT-based inpatient programme. This book could have been a vivid description of what it's like to suffer from BPD, an insight into how treatment works from a patient's perspective, and a source of hope for other sufferers. You can find glimpses of all those things in Eclipses, but they don't shine through because of the way the book is written and structured. It's not a conventional biography that tells a story from beginning to end. Instead, it's presented as an informative book about BPD, which uses the author's and others' experiences as case studies to illustrate points.

Does it work better as a source of information, then? For me it didn't because the focus is so narrow. The chapter on what BPD is only describes the symptoms of a few patients (who have multiple diagnoses), so that some of the key features are not mentioned at all, and the reader could easily be misled into thinking that symptoms of depression or other disorders are also symptoms of BPD. The chapters on treatment describe the programme at one hospital (now closed) in great detail, but there is no general information on other approaches, or even on how DBT might work in a different setting.

If you're looking for some reassurance that people can and do recover from BPD, Eclipses is worth a read. If you're looking for facts, it also makes an excellent case study of how a particular treatment works from the point of view of the patient. However, it is hard work to read as a biography, and if you're looking for general information on BPD and treatments, there are many better books out there such as The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide.

Written in first-person by someone who truly knows Borderline Personality Disorder, this novel-that-reads-like-non-fiction is A MUST for those who wish to understand and help a loved one with this illness. The writer gives a portrait of several other patients, thus providing a poignant look at the shapes and intensities BPD can have.

I just ordered this book, and I already know it is great! I know the writer from the online borderPD mailing list- a support list for BPD patiants.
Lets just say that if Melissa wrote half as good as she writes in the group the book is well worth it!
Hufs to all! (and if you don't understand I guest that you are not a member of border PD :) )