Defences & distortions

Splitting

Splitting is the division of people, both past and present, into polarised, all-or-nothing categories: entirely good and nurturing, or entirely bad and rejecting, with little room for a more realistic, mixed view of anyone as having both strengths and flaws at once. It is found most frequently in people with borderline personality disorder, where it underlies the sudden, jarring swings from idealising someone to condemning them entirely.

Illustration

Within the same week, a young woman describes her new colleague as 'honestly the only decent person left in this office,' then, after a single perceived slight, tells a friend the same colleague is 'cruel and cannot be trusted at all,' with no acknowledgement that both descriptions concern the same, unchanged person.

Related phenomena

Borderline Personality Disorder

References

• Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.