Issue: Sept 2, 1999

NEW YORK, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Sally Bedell Smith's biography, Diana in Search of Herself, brings Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) into sharp focus as the mental illness that shaped her life.

According to Valerie Porr, President, Treatment & Research Advancements Association for Personality Disorder (TARA APD), "the public is unaware of the extent and seriousness of this mental illness afflicting two to three percent of the general population."

TARA APD, a non-profit organization, increases public awareness of this chronic, often fatal, disease with a suicide rate three times higher than schizophrenia and bipolar disorder combined.

Porr claims stories about Princess Diana demonize her for exhibiting the very symptoms that characterize her illness. "Stigma trivializes her pain, blames her for her condition and makes a caricature of her suffering."

"Diana was heroic in her efforts to overcome her illness, resist labeling and defy the traditional psychotherapy that doesn't help patients with the disorder," states Porr.

"Borderline Personality Disorder is characterized by impulsivity, emotional volatility and vulnerability," says Leon Bernhardt, M.D., head of the Borderline Personality Disorder Program at Metropolitan Hospital, New York City.

"With treatment, you don't have to live the way Diana did," he emphasizes. "Her situation is a sad commentary on the current state of failure to appropriately identify, assess and treat persons with this illness."

Leading clinicians now recommend cognitive behavioral retraining together with medication. "With this treatment combination, patients can improve," according to Larry Siever, M.D., Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, researcher into the neurobiology of Borderline Personality Disorder.

"Bedell Smith is correct in saying that Borderline Personality Disorder is a 'framework' for explaining Diana." Asserts Porr, "Until the author's revelation of Diana's illness, no one had put a face on this disorder. In doing so, Bedell Smith may provide Diana posthumously with her major legacy: helping those living with the pain of Borderline Personality Disorder."

For information on BPD, call TARA APD Hotline 1-888-4-TARA-APD 

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COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

Sally Bedell Smith, “Diana in Search of Herself - Portrait of a Troubled Princess”, Times Books 1999