Work-in-progress

... the introduction to the dreaded....

In this paper I will argue that epistemic justice is of particular concern in the treatment of those with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The role it should play is threefold:

• to protect BPD patients from testimonial injustice due to the stigma attached to their diagnosis and/or testimonial bad luck due to the effects of hermeneutical marginalisation;

• to enable and strengthen the therapeutic relationship, which is reliant on epistemic trust;

• to help patients develop the hermeneutical resources to understand themselves.

In the first section, I will introduce and define the concepts I will be using as well as providing an overview of BPD. I will then demonstrate why epistemic injustice is a distinct possibility, while also exploring the contention that in some cases BPD patients may be untrustworthy. Section III addresses the ‘epistemic virtues’ that will enable a clinician to build a relationship based on epistemic trust and enable them, collaboratively, to discover hermeneutical resources which may be of assistance.

I have chosen to focus on BPD partly because it raises issues particularly relevant to the domain of epistemic justice but also because I have a BPD diagnosis and have investigated the psychological literature. In this paper, I will refer to my own experiences, where illuminating, as well as to the psychological literature.