{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T16:52:11Z","timestamp":1791564731261,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"S. Karger AG","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791504000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791504000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Psychopathology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Phenomenological research has long provided a foundation for understanding the schizophrenic condition as a whole, yet its contribution to borderline personality disorder (BPD) remains comparatively scattered across different lines of inquiry. Existing phenomenological studies on BPD typically focus on fragmented lived temporality, dysphoric mood, emotion dysregulation and anomalies of lived body and interpersonal experience, often overlooking the affective and sensory impact of a reality experienced as independent of and indifferent to consciousness. To address this imbalance, this paper uses \u2018\u2019phenomenological realism\u2019\u2019 to examine BPD psychopathology as an integrated whole, framing this unique feature of borderline self- and world-experience through the concept of \u2018\u2019ontic gravity.\u2019\u2019 Summary: The borderline mode of consciousness, especially in states of acute distress, is characterized in terms of an \u201cexcess of reality\u201d. By comparing BPD with schizophrenia, the authors highlight a fundamental difference in derealization: while the schizophrenic experience is marked by an \u201cevanescence of reality\u201d and a search for hidden meaning, including one's role in its constitution, the borderline experience involves a traumatic, blunt, and intrusive concreteness. Using the concept of the phenomenological epoch\u00e9, the paper argues that while schizophrenia resembles an involuntary suspension of the natural attitude, BPD can be understood as a total immersion in it, where the person is unable to distance themselves from what is immediately given as fact. Key Message: The tendency among persons with BPD to feel \u201ccrushed\u201d by events during severe distress may be associated with a difficulty in taking a \u201ctranscendental\u201d attitude. Unlike the \u201coblique gaze\u201d of people with schizophrenia that searches for how meaning is constituted, the borderline \u201cdirect gaze\u201d tends to experience bodily feelings, encounters with others, and perceptions as raw, physically abrasive facts that imply unmediated suffering rather than reflection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1159\/psp\/aelag012","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T11:44:47Z","timestamp":1791459887000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Weight of the Real: A Phenomenological Exploration of the \u201cExcess of Reality\u201d in Borderline Consciousness Through a Comparison with Schizophrenia"],"prefix":"10.1159","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5164-7013","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giovanni","family":"Stanghellini","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giorgia","family":"Cuffaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"127","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]]},"container-title":["Psychopathology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1159\/psp\/aelag012","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T16:02:29Z","timestamp":1791561749000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article\/doi\/10.1159\/psp\/aelag012"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1159\/psp\/aelag012","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0254-4962","1423-033X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0254-4962","type":"print"},{"value":"1423-033X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]]}}}