Borderline Genius / Borderline Insane

We are not merely ruled by a cabal of male psychopaths.

Edward Dutton’s Borderline Genius / Borderline Insane makes the case that women with Borderline Personality Disorder, an overwhelmingly female, Dark Triad condition, have exercised immense and largely unacknowledged influence across Western history.

Evolutionary Account of Borderline Traits

Dutton develops an evolutionary account of borderline traits, arguing that the very characteristics that can make the borderline personality self-destructive can, under the right circumstances, also produce genius. History has been shaped not merely by extraordinary men with unusual personalities, but also by psychologically unusual women whose influence has been indirect and therefore difficult to see.

These women repeatedly emerge as female outliers who wield soft power through:

• Intense creativity
• Intoxicating sexuality
• The ability to entrance high-status men

Practical Insights for Relationships

The book also has a practical purpose, identifying patterns that may alert readers to borderline behavior in their own relationships. These patterns include:

• Sudden shifts of identity
• Intense idealisation
• Emotional volatility
• Risky behavior
• Unstable attachments
• The sense that the new relationship feels almost impossibly perfect

The Paradox of Borderline Personality

We see a paradox at the heart of the borderline personality: the coexistence of genius and instability. The qualities that draw us toward such women become inseparable from the qualities that make relationships with them so heart-breaking.

Dutton’s explosive new work gives us a hidden key to understanding our world’s most dangerous females.