A review by emmacatereads
The Buddha & the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder Through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Buddhism, & Online Dating by Kiera Van Gelder

4.0

This was the second entry in my lived experiences of mental health biography series, and somehow despite four years of schooling and two years of post-grad work in the field, I have not yet read anything about BPD from the perspective of someone with BPD. Thus, this novel was deeply eye-opening in understanding a disorder that is deeply stigmatized both inside and outside the psychological community. Kiera Van Gelder is honest, unapologetic, and occasionally brutal in her discussion of her life as BPD sufferer, and how she came to find a measure of peace through various therapies and, eventually, through Buddhism. I've always been a great admirer of acceptance-based therapies such as DBT and ACT and felt like I learned a lot about their roots in Zen Buddhism, and the many cultural variation thereof.

While Kiera is not always a deeply sympathetic narrator, she is a deeply truthful one, and at her core is a fundamentally kind and giving person seeking what at the end of the day we all seek: love and acceptance. Kiera's story also draws the reader to certain aspects of BPD that can be relatable to anyone: feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, rejection, and invalidation, and explains how BPD dials up these difficult emotions to an unimaginable degree.