Chronic Emptiness as Disintegration and Survival: A Grounded Theory of the Unanchored Self in People Diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Chronic emptiness is a central yet insufficiently understood feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study investigates the developmental, relational, and embodied foundations of chronic emptiness and advances a grounded theory conceptualized as The Unanchored Self. Eighteen qualitative interviews were conducted with six women diagnosed with BPD; each was interviewed three times. Using grounded theory methodology, the analysis identified recurring experiential patterns and integrated participants’ narratives with psychoanalytic, attachment-based, and trauma-informed perspectives. The resulting theory is grounded in participants’ own meanings and relational contexts, offering a nuanced account of emptiness as a dynamic experience emerging at the intersection of self-development, interpersonal patterns, and embodied ways of being. Five interrelated categories structure the theory: Embodiment of Chronic Emptiness, Relational Instability, Coping and Survival Strategies, Meaning Making, and Developmental Trajectory. Embodiment captured emptiness as a somatically encoded disruption of selfhood, marked by numbness, pain, and dissociation. Relational Instability reflected anticipatory withdrawal, abandonment expectations, and hypervigilance rooted in disrupted attachment. Coping and Survival Strategies described efforts to manage internal collapse through adaptive and maladaptive means, including avoidance, suppression, and self-harm. Meaning-making identified emptiness as a barrier to symbolic engagement and existential coherence. The Developmental Trajectory traced the emergence of emptiness to early relational trauma, emotional silencing, and environmental instability, culminating in a developmental model called Fragmented Foundation. Theoretical integration suggests that chronic emptiness serves as both a wound and a survival adaptation, a cyclical collapse of relational, somatic, and affective integration, sustained by coping strategies that echo early developmental fragmentation. Clinically, the findings underscore the need for trauma-informed, relationally attuned, and somatically grounded approaches that prioritize rupture–repair processes and the restoration of epistemic trust.