Change in emotion-based narrative as a potential mechanism of change in a brief treatment for borderline personality disorder.

The move from inconsistent and problematic autobiographical narrative to a more coherent and reality-based narrative construction of the Self has been discussed as potential mechanism of change in psychotherapies for personality disorders. So far, little empirical evidence exists that demonstrates in a time-dependent design the role of narrative construction in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, in particular when it comes to understanding the integration of body-related information from the affective system with the autobiographical narrative. The present study aims at demonstrating change in emotion-based narrative markers over brief psychiatric treatment and to assess the impact of these changes on subsequent symptom change.