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Review
. 2025 Nov 12;12(1):46.
doi: 10.1186/s40479-025-00326-y.

Psychosocial functioning in personality disorders

Ueli Kramer #  1 , Chiara De Panfilis #  2 , Rasa Barkauskiene  3 , Katja Bertsch  4 , Joost Hutsebaut  5 , Andres Kaera  6 , Mariana Mendoza-Alvarez  7 , Mickey T Kongerslev  8 , Babette Renneberg  9 , Christian Schmahl  10 , Michaela Swales  11
Affiliations
Review

Psychosocial functioning in personality disorders

Ueli Kramer et al. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul. .

Abstract

The present paper takes a broad perspective on the psychosocial functioning in adult patients with personality disorders. We start with a working definition, then we report on psychosocial functioning in personality disorders from both categorical and dimensional perspectives of personality disorder. We add a section on assessment tools which may be used in this context. We then address the question of how problematic psychosocial functioning may be addressed in psychotherapy and other treatment contexts, when it comes to supporting the person's move towards sustained recovery. We add a lived and living experience perspective to psychosocial functioning and recovery. We end with recommendations for future research in the domain of psychosocial functioning.

Keywords: Interpersonal functioning; Occupational functioning; Personality disorders; Psychosocial functioning; Recovery; Social functioning.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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