Psychological masculinity, femininity and tactics of manipulation in patients with borderline personality disorder

Aim. The aim of the study was a relation between the borderline personality disorder and psychological gender, and tendency to use various manipulation tactics in everyday life and therapeutic context.Methods. The study used the Psychological Gender Inventory (A. Kuczyńska, 1992), and self-developed questionnaire for evaluating the tendency to use manipulation tactics and a survey evaluating manipulation in therapeutic contact. The studied group included: 30 patients with diagnosed BPD, 30 people a control group and 125 therapists.Results. The study of psychological gender showed that in the patient group the level of masculinity was significantly lower. Results showed that 88% of the therapists participating in the study confirmed that they have experienced manipulation attempts from patients. The therapists assessed the tendency of patientsto use manipulation tactics as greater than it was declared by the patients themselves. When compared to the control group, the patients indeed demonstrated a greater tendency to use the tactics of begging,threatening and threatening to break a close relationship and a lesser tendency to use the tactic of seduction. In the view of the therapists, during therapy patients most often used the tactics of lying and guilt induction.Conclusions. Manipulation is frequently used by BPD patients both in everyday life and in therapeutic contact. The most common reasons for using manipulation is to obtain benefits and to avoid negativeconsequences. It is necessary to conduct further research in this field and educate those who work with psychiatric patients in order to make them develop the ability to detect manipulation attempts and cope with such tactics.