Larry Siever, Valerie Porr, and Martin Bohus at
American Psychiatric Association Meeting, 2015

The frustrating No-Man’s Land
of Borderline Personality Disorder

By Larry Siever, MD and Harold Koenigsberg, MD

Dear Colleagues:

Larry J. Siever, MD, a pioneer in the study of personality disorders and a longtime leader in the Mount Sinai Psychiatry Department and the James J Peters VA Medical Center, has passed away after a long illness. Larry’s work provided the scaffolding for a new way of thinking about personality disorders and has been international recognized for decades. His work led to the reconceptualization of personality disorders and, arguably, the elimination of a distinction between Axis I and Axis II in DSM-5. He published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and numerous awards, including an award “in recognition of distinguished and pioneering contributions to the study of personality disorders” at the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders in 2011. He has held many leadership positions, including Director of the Personality Disorder Program at Mount Sinai, Director of the MIRECC at the James J Peters Veteran’s Administration MC, Past President of the Society of Biological Psychiatry and Fellow of the American College of Neuro Psychopharmacology. As the founding director of the VISN 3 MIRECC, he was instrumental in bringing psychiatric research into the VA.

Larry’s ideas inspired a generation of investigators who study the neurobiology of personality disorders. Larry always paired his excellence in his own work with a passion for fostering the careers of young mentees. Indeed, he described one of the reasons he became most interested in borderline personality disorder was because it drew into his lab excitement from trainees. Through Larry’s leadership in training post-doctoral fellows, he inspired and guided more than 30 trainees, including many who are leaders in the field today. These include Emil Cocarro, Antonia New, Harold Koenigsberg, Marianne Goodman, Erin Hazlett, Philip D. Harvey, Jeremy Silverman, Margaret McNamara, Panos Roussos and Mercedes Perez.

We would like to invite you to a Zoom memorial honoring Larry. Some of his closest friends and colleagues as well as some of those he mentored will say a few words and then we will have a chance for others to express themselves. The memorial is scheduled for February 8th from 5:30-6:30pm. See the link below.

In Memoriam from TARA4BPD and Valerie Porr

It is with great sadness that I pass on the news of the death of Larry Siever, one of the very first and finest researchers in the field of personality disorder. He was an inspiration and support to so many, and to me, personally. From the earliest days in 1994 when TARA4BPD began our work to improve research and treatment for those with personality disorder, Larry supported our efforts, always answering questions and explaining difficult concepts with clarity and patience. He helped us bring neuroscience to the BPD public with enthusiastic clarity.

Larry once told me that he was advised not to study personality disorder because it would mean career suicide We are all so glad he did not heed that advice. He has influenced so many ...His passing is a great loss to all of us in the personality disorder community.

We at TARA4BPD hope you will join the zoom memorial to honor the memory of this great man.

With sadness.
Valerie Porr,
Pres/Founder TARA4BPD Help

In Memoriam

John G. Gunderson, MD 6/20/1942 - 1/11/2019

John G. Gunderson, MD was a pioneer in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. In 1973, while studying schizophrenics, , he discovered that many were being misdiagnosed when they were actually struggling with BPD. . Dr. Gunderson had compassion for the BPD patients and dedicated his career to developing, evaluating, and disseminating scientifically proven treatments for people with this BPD. Recognizing that patients with BPD were not only being misdiagnosed, but also not receiving the appropriate treatment for their illness, Dr. Gunderson worked towards the formal recognition of BPD in the DSM. His studies on BPD helped transform the diagnosis from a psychoanalytic construct into a scientifically established and internationally recognized disorder and is recognized as the “father of BPD.”

“Dr. Gunderson pioneered the field of BPD, from setting the standards of diagnosis to developing methods for assessment and through his groundbreaking research, advancing evidence-based treatment. Dr. Gunderson understood that individuals with BPD responded to psychosocial treatments, individual and group therapies, not relying on medication interventions. The  Gunderson Residence, a program at McLean Hospital that was named in his honor and specializes in care for women with personality disorders. He developed an empirically validated BPD treatment , general psychiatric management (GPM),  designed to be an outpatient intervention that could be easily delivered by community mental health professionals and includes education for patients and their families, a persistent focus on the patient’s life outside of therapy, and a focus on goals.

Dr. Gunderson authored 250 papers, 100 reviews, and 12 books and has been internationally recognized for his work, earning more than 30 national and international awards, including Who’s Who in America; International Who’s Who in Medicine; America’s Best Doctors: The Two Thousand Best Doctors; and Boston Magazine’s Best Two Hundred Doctors.  Dr. Gunderson was also the recipient of the TARA4BPD Star Award for his Dedication to Advancing Research and Treatment for BPD.

In Memoriam

Kenneth Silk, MD 5/27/1944 - 4/18/2016

Ken was a founding editor of Personality and Mental Health. He thoroughly enjoyed this role and played a major part in getting the journal off to a flying start, so that it was well received in the area of personality disorder and had an impact factor within 2 years of publication. Editorial strategy was mainly carried out by international teleconference, not easy to time with editors in Scotland, New Zealand and the United States, but these, well‐organized with Eddie Kane's help, were good‐natured, jolly and remarkably productive, with Ken's wit and wisdom adding to their value. Ken maintained his enthusiasm for the journal to the end of his life and despite his illness was able to complete the overview of the 2016 special issue published in May, accompanied by a short and pithy editorial pointing to the importance of empirical studies in a subject where opinion alone has ruled for far too long.

Ken was a longtime friend and champion of the work of TARA4BPD. We mourn his loss. Valerie Porr, TARA4BPD

"I knew Ken through his work on borderline personality disorder. He was remarkable for his thoughtfulness, his compassion and, beyond that, his generosity, especially to young people joining the field. His contributions to our approach to personality disorder treatments were transformative (albeit shared in a rather humble way). We will all miss his humor and his optimism in our field. I can only imagine that this sense of loss must be much more intense for his family. My thoughts are with you.”

Antonia New, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, April 23, 2016