""In her important and influential book, Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder , Marsha Linehan (1993) argues that the source of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is “the invalidating environment.” She considers abuse in childhood to be an example of a particularly terrible invalidating environment and as part of the etiology of this disorder.

 She does not, however, contend—and her data do not support—that individuals have to be abused or traumatized as children to develop BPD. Unfortunately, she makes too little of the disorganizing and dysregulating effect of neglect. This omission is problematic because neglect clearly contributes to the high level of arousal and emotional instability that is the hallmark of BPD. 

Others argue that there is an absolute overlap between developmental trauma and borderline personality disorder and that BPD should be reclassified as complex PTSD or, more recently, developmental trauma (Herman, 1997; van der Kolk, 1994). Were Linehan to rename this disorder, however, she would call it emotion regulation disorder (personal communication, May 7, 2011).

 To my mind, this term would represent a quantum leap forward in our understanding of the core problem in those given this diagnosis. They cannot regulate their emotions to save their lives.....

...People with histories of untreated developmental trauma are usually diagnosed with personality disorders in adulthood. Anyone who occupies a space on this continuum of dysregulation is unable to fully occupy their own interior, and each of them, to the extent they can feel, feels motherless."

Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain . Sebern F. Fisher