Time perception and lived experience in personality disorders: differences across types, dimensions and severity

In comparison to healthy individuals, those with PD are more oriented toward past negative (4.01 <i>vs</i>. 2.98) and less toward past positive (2.31 <i>vs</i>. 3.71) and future (3.04 <i>vs</i>. 3.47), as measured with PS-ZTPI; their pre-reflective temporal experience, as measured with CT, is dominated either by the past or the future, while the present remains marginalized. BPD distinctiveness among other PD lies in higher orientation toward hedonistic present and lower orientation toward the future. While the general temporal profile of PD is independent of age and duration of hospitalization, it is related to the severity of the condition. The more severe the impairments in self-functioning, the higher the negative past perspective and pre-reflective past dominance, and the lower the positive and future perspective. The results of this study highlight temporality as an essential aspect of lived experience in PD, being possibly related to disturbed self-experience.