Les troubles de personnalité limite sont caractérisés par un certain nombre de manifestations éparses telles que des actes autodestructeurs, une angoisse massive, des affects intenses et labiles, des ruptures interpersonnelles et une grande impulsivité. L’objectif de cet article consiste ainsi à reprendre un certain nombre de données de littérature susceptible de dresser une vue d’ensemble des troubles de personnalité limite à la lumière de la théorie de l’attachement, en supposant que celle-ci puisse en expliciter les mécanismes à l’œuvre et rassembler les comportements décrits en une unité cohérente. Ainsi, l’étude étiologique basée sur l’attachement, englobant les modèles biopsychosociaux et plus particulièrement la question des traumatismes, permet d’éclairer la symptomatologie à la fois multiple et spécifique de ces troubles par le biais de mécanismes tels que l’activation du système d’attachement, la dysrégulation émotionnelle et la mise à défaut de la mentalisation.

Borderline personality disorders concern clinicians and caregivers because of the violent and impulsive nature of their behavioral and affective reactions, which often confronts them to a feeling of helplessness and incomprehension. Indeed, it may be difficult to deal with self-harm, massive anxiety, intense affects and interpersonal ruptures, which are often present in the life course of the borderline patients. Their distress is particularly difficult to accept as it takes place in the therapeutic link, which reveals the core of the patient's attachment problematic. This paper aims to draw up an overview of borderline personality disorders, in light of attachment theory, which could help to clarify the involved mechanisms and gather the described behaviors in a coherent unit. Many studies relating to borderline personality disorder and attachment theory highlight what constitutes the specificity of these disorders through an integrative approach. Thus, the combination of an insecure attachment style, biological vulnerabilities and environmental stressors like traumatisms may induce the establishment of many defensive mechanisms, such as attachment system hyperactivation, emotional dysregulation or mentalization's failure. People suffering of borderline personality disorder activate these mechanisms as soon as they have to deal with real or imagined abandonments related to one of their attachment figures. However, in view of the massive anxiety and the severe disruption, those inefficient mechanisms cannot enable a good resolution of stressful situations. Consequently, borderline patients are likely to resort to new kind of emotional regulation such as suicidal, destructive and impulsive behaviors. Attachment based theories focus on these defensive mechanisms and inadequate attempts of emotional regulation, in order to propose an appropriate treatment for borderline personality disorder.