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The Siren's Dance: My Marriage to a Borderline: A Case Study

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"I know that you love me because you still make love to me even after we have a fight." She was right. Her sorrow and embarrassment at her outbursts were real, and her attempts to control her anger so earnest that I knew she was trying for me, for herself, and for us. I had to remind myself that I had known that she was intense to the extreme in her experience of life, and that her struggle was my struggle. We would share anger, but we would also share love.

No one could ever love Michelle enough. Not her family, not her friends, and certainly not the men (and women) she so easily attracted, like moths to a flame. But when a final-year med student falls for her while she's recovering from a suicide attempt over her latest breakup, they both may be in for more than they bargained for. Hoping to help cure her of her debilitating fears and explosive rage, Anthony marries Michelle in a secret ceremony that alienates him from his family, and ultimately from himself. Initially mesmerized by her seductive smile, her surprising sensuality, and the why behind her wildly unpredictable behavior, the author comes to realize that he will have to sacrifice his career--and more--in order to be with her.

This achingly honest and true account of Anthony and Michelle's whirlwind year-and-a-half together provides a window into the emotionally intense world of someone suffering from borderline personality disorder, a condition seen in an estimated 2 percent of the general population and 10 percent of mental health outpatients. It also offers the perspective of those most affected--the sufferer's loved ones, whom despite all the upheaval are still compelled to care. So concludes the author: "I hope that my story will be seen more as a case study in such a relationship than as a cautionary tale."

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2003

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5 stars
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56 (27%)
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Moira.
512 reviews25 followers
April 5, 2010
Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Highly dubious with regard to medical and psychiatric details, and horribly sexist, to boot.
Profile Image for Joe.
Author 2 books22 followers
December 9, 2010
This book was recommended to me by a person in the "non-BPD community" - i.e., those individuals who like me, were fated to get involved with a person who has this illness. I had told her that a major reason I stuck with my person was because of the passion and love in the relationship.... which was how it got recommended. I am not the only such spouse swept off their feet by a vibrant beautiful person; this is a commonality, unbeknownst to me..... so, was my relationship like this???? the answer is no, thank God!

There are several levels upon which to critique. The book describes a tumultuous period in the author's life. He was doing a Psychiatry residency rotation when he met her just after one of her suicide attempts. He married her impulsively, knowing she was a Borderline patient..... (hint: don't date anybody you meet at Group Therapy! or AA! or Alanon!)

From a writing point of view, this author is desperately struggling to create a narrative and a trajectory. It reads like a diary. The author is trying to do "creative nonfiction" and has decided to tell the story as it happened - within some framework that resembles chronological truth. A good piece of advice is for a new writer facing this challenge is to free yourself from the surly bonds of linear time! This strait jacket prevents the book from providing much suspense, a problem with this genre. It goes on to it's dreary end.

Also, the characters were 3D in real life I am sure, but don't come across that way.... The writing is too too clinical. I could not sympathize with anybody, and the author could have benefitted us all by a more honest exploration of his own motives... The book takes place during a period of moving around for various jobs and clinical rotations, and the details of geographical change were dizzying. The characters were all doomed from the beginning. The mix of clinical teaching, to inform the reader about Borderline, does not "work" and comes across as preachy. Too much telling and not enough showing.

I suppose it was this author's first book. Tess Gerritson, the MD who writes fiction out of Maine, does workshops for MDs who wish to write. This author might benefit from reworking the story after taking one of Tess Gerritson's workshops on writing for doctors.

Now, I will suspend the dissection of the writing of the book, and address the underlying Borderline Personality Disorder. Again, the characters are one-dimensional and the writing does not draw the reader in. The story line, and particularly the main character, is destructive from the git-go, and IMHO does not reflect the more-slowly-developing seductiveness of falling in love with a Borderline over a longer period of time and a more gradual descent into madness (for the sufferer) and codependence (for the family members). Here is a doctor who should have known better - Most spouses (or at least me) don't get started in this with such a clear handle on codependence and neediness as this author did, and nobody warns them.

My XBPDSO was a passionate lover and wonderful human being. Neither of us had a substance abuse problem. Our courtship had red flags - she dumped me three times and I had a five-months-long No Contact Policy in 1978 before we got back together "permanently". We had two kids, and a long history of tempestuousness. She was a wonderful loving mother. This was what made it so painful for me when her illness lit up. A person with this illness is three-dimensional, not the kind of caricature depicted in this book. Each BPD person has people who love them deeply. Her cycles of tension-blowup-seclusion-remorse-passionate reunion were more predictable than the ones described in this book, and we experienced them for years without putting a name to it - this is a much more typical scenario for many persons - not the way it is depicted in this book. I think this tends toward the sensational. This does not help the community of people who live with this illness.

I know there are hundreds of ways the illness manifests itself..... This seems atypical.... Too lurid....or perhaps just not well described.....

Profile Image for Deb.
697 reviews10 followers
November 1, 2010
Boy, this guy can't write. Seems like he took the diagnostic criteria straight from DSM IV and made up dialog.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
8 reviews
December 5, 2008
This was a very interesting read. If I had to find fault with the book it was the account was almost too succinct. I do find it disturbing that he was allowed to date a patient while a senior med school student and now is working with emotionally disturbed teenaged girls. Spelled out, he doesn't seem to have appropriate boundries when it comes to his judgement.
30 reviews
June 22, 2024
“It felt so good to be so wanted and needed by her; she had so much to teach me about living. This made it easy to love her and care for her. The matter of the suicide attempt was a remote memory, and one that didn’t seem to fit. She made it easy for me to forget just how fragile she was.” (One of many awful quotes in this book)

Story of a med student who falls in love with a patient hospitalized after a suicide attempt, pursues a relationship with her, and then blames her disorder for their failing relationship.

He portrays himself as this clueless unaware narrator (as if he isn’t a literal medical professional who has received ethics training), who eventually realizes “wow BPD is kinda a big deal! Maybe I should get to know a person to love them rather than just want to make them feel loved because of my savior complex!”

Despite everyone around him warning him not to engage with patients, to learn more about BPD, etc. he still goes through with it and then paints this weird 2D storyline of her wanting too much and him thinking he can just fix it by just loving her more.

Make no mistake, I understand the importance of talking about BPD. I just hate the way it was portrayed in this book. I hate the way she is described as a “siren” that seduced him until he realizes that she’s like an actual human being with complexities and nuance. I hate the way he constantly brings up that he just wants to show her love and save her and how he thinks it’s relevant that “ever since he was young he cared for weak things”. I hate the way his title is “My marriage to a borderline: a case study”. I should have known before even opening it.

BPD is serious, but it is manageable and does not mean the end of every relationship. It’s when people like this doctor come around with the intention of “fixing” people and “just wanting to give them love they have never seen before!” when things go awry. That is not caring; that is not helpful. And in the end, once selfish people like our narrator realize that’s not how it works, they leave and further subject the person with BPD to abandonment. I wish I could give this 1/2 star. Only partially redeemable parts of this book were the appendices.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Brandon.
Author 9 books21 followers
June 9, 2013
A well-written account that shares an uncanny resemblance to my own emotionally-taxing experience with my borderline ex. Some of the moments were incredibly triggering for me to read. As far as I know, this is the only book I've found written for the spouses of borderlines. My break up was so horrible. This book was a welcome read.
3 reviews1 follower
September 13, 2009
There are an amazing number of people with this disorder out there...Given to me by a friend trying to explain their co-dependent & addictive relationship. Hard to help your friends without understanding the problem.
Profile Image for Domonique Stevens.
36 reviews
May 30, 2025
The author wrote this novel with the intention to speak negatively about his ex wife, but I hope that since writing this novel he’s taken the time to complete some self reflection to examine the role he played in this relationship as well. He met his ex wife at the hospital where she was a patient and he was a 4th year med student... incredibly inappropriate! She painted a very clear picture of herself in that first meeting and he ignored her words, instead focusing on how pretty her smile was. At the end of the novel he even uses the statement that she “seduced him.” This novel is very stigmatizing towards individuals dx with BPD.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Diane.
398 reviews
January 27, 2009
I read this book in one sitting - which is very unusual for me. I couldn't put it down! It was an extremely interesting true story. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Connie.
30 reviews10 followers
November 12, 2009
Fascinating true story that psychiatrist's themselves fall victim to infatuation and love, to their own demise.
4 reviews
January 24, 2019
Finished in 1 day....easy, quick read. I also found it fascinating and left me wanting to know a bit more about the whole story. Very sad, and yet, very helpful to read someone’s true account.
Profile Image for Olivia.
14 reviews
December 8, 2025
no one who writes such fetishistic drivel about a woman suffering from BPD should be allowed to work in a place dedicated to helping young girls with the same disorder.

but if that isn't enough reason for you to avoid this book, it's also genuinely one of the most poorly-written things I've ever read... although I suppose such is the consequence of writing a whole book with only one hand. this entire thing reads like a dreadfully boring fan fiction Dr. Blaise Aguirre (the author's real name) wrote about himself.


______


below are some gems for your viewing displeasure -- keep in mind that 'Michelle' is the woman with BPD who overdosed and wound up at the hospital where Aguirre was working, which is how he met her. He goes on to marry 'Michelle' four months after this encounter and then divorce her within two years.

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"'Tonight you got the best, and you know it. You saw the other men looking at me. You know they wanted me, but I am with you and I want you to take me home now.'

I had never been on a date as unpredictable as this. I could not tell how it would end, and this uncertainty intrigued me. [...] I was not inclined to stop the seduction. I opened the passenger door and she slid into her seat. Driving west on Calle Ocho, it was difficult to concentrate, but it was even more difficult to believe that only a week earlier, modern medicine had ensured that Michelle's suicide attempt did not succeed. A tough, self-confident sexiness had replaced vulnerability, innocence, and openness."

__
"She laughed. 'I want you to pour it between my breasts and drink from me. God, that will turn me on!'

[...] She stripped completely and lay down on a plush white shag, directing me all the while with skilled hands. It was all the time I needed to reach a quick climax. She jumped up and quickly got dressed, urging me to do the same. Then she turned on the light. 'Damn. Help me move this couch over the stain. I made a mess with my period. I'll clean it up tomorrow.'"

__
"At lunch we sat in a secluded booth and ordered Chardonnay by the bottle, which we accompanied with oysters by the plateful. Then, hardly needing a main course, we ordered that too. Michelle placed an oyster in her mouth and then took my hand, sucking on my fingers with the oyster, still smooth, in her mouth. She then took my hand and placed it gently between her thighs and slowly rubbed herself on it. She reached orgasm just as the waiter brought our dessert, a slice of Black Forest cake."

__
"'God, how I have suffered with that girl. She dropped out of college and spent every night dancing at nightclubs. One night she met a girl who was some kind of model. The girl started coming over to the house, and eventually she started spending the night at our house. She slept in Michelle's room and they would lock themselves in there. But the walls aren't that thick. I know what was going on. It went on for over two months. [...]'

'What happened after that?'

'The girl found herself a boyfriend [...]'"

__
"I loved these refreshing moments of insight. I knew few people who so deeply looked into themselves, and yet sadly this knowledge and these insights didn't seem to help her, other than in knowing that maybe she needed therapy, or at least she needed me for now. I realized that I was mistaking her unpredictable behavior for apparent freedom of choice. This made her appear deliciously freer and sexier than anyone I had ever known."

1 review
February 10, 2024
I am nearing the end of my education and training as a Clinical Psychologist and am astounded at the acceptance the author receives for acting on his attractions for a patient. Not only does he describe her in a two dimensional sense, but the level of manipulation he ascribes to her when he is the one in a helping profession assigned to be establishing boundaries is hypocritical to say the least. I have never written a good OR bad review of a book before, but as a mental health professional who knows this disorder well (I have treated patients and lived alongside family members with this personality pattern) I feel it is in my duty to warn people that this account should not be read as clinical information. If you choose to read, do so with the understanding that it is not only medical malpractice, but simply cruel to publish a personal depiction of someone in such light with no chance to defend themselves given their poor mental state.
6 reviews
February 19, 2025
I’m torn here.

I appreciate the attempt at fictionalizing his memoirs so it doesn’t feel too clinical to read.
As a woman diagnosed with BPD, I found some parts very relatable but there are also a lot of stigmatizations, stereotypes and shaming.
From the point of view of a psychiatrist and husband of a BPD person, I’m saddened to find so little empathy, research and knowledge about the condition. His positioning as a victim wallowing in self pity shows a huge lack of introspection.

I think that Walker’s book had some potential but the second half felt rushed, and overall lacks depth.
Profile Image for Sheen.
1 review1 follower
December 27, 2020
This is definitely a story of BPD

I'm going to recommend this book to my whole family. I grew up with a mom with BPD and the suffering just never ends although she's amazing and loving. She's also very self-centered and deals with this debilitating disease.
2 reviews
January 30, 2023
Very good classic example of Borderline Personality Disorder.

The book is very good. As an aside, I don't know if the print edition is the same, but the e-book contains a very large number of misspellings and words obviously different from the intended words.
Profile Image for Cheryl.
Author 3 books7 followers
August 26, 2024
Book weakened by poor editing

While the story told is fine and important as there are not many published accounts of relationships with people with BPD, unfortunately this book is full of typos and other mistakes good editing would catch.
Profile Image for Maria Servidone.
9 reviews14 followers
January 28, 2020
Couldn't put this down! I have interest in learning about mental health and personality disorders, and this was an excellent case study on BPD
Profile Image for J. Cee.
5 reviews14 followers
September 26, 2017
This book was definitely a quick read for me. When it comes to books like these, I don't think people should take the plot in this book as a generalization for what those who suffer from Borderline Personality disorder, as well as those who are associated with them (family members, loved ones) go through, but more so as another way of learning from another's experience.

My first time learning about this disorder was in Introduction to Psychology, a course that I believe I had taken my sophomore year in undergrad, and that was also needed [to be taken] in order to graduate.

However, after reading this novel, it made me reflect on a relationship I had with a guy, who shared similar traits to Dr. Walker's patient-turned girlfriend-turned wife-turned ex-wife Michelle. Now this isn't to say that after reading this book everyone should go around comparing loved ones, friends and ex-lovers to Michelle. Nevertheless, I will say that a book that makes you think and provides you with a personal account AND teaches you something about a subject you were otherwise novice to, is a book that I don't mind reading.

I didn't know what to expect when I picked out this book (I got it at the library from a Valentine's Day theme called 'Blind Date with a Book'); and an except that was provided caught my attention. I think the concept was to not judge a book by its cover. That's beside the point (just a side bar).

I will conclude this review by saying, if you're looking for a certified analysis with direct quotes and research explained verbatim by doctors and psychiatrists, etc., then this book may not be for you. I mean after all the doctor's name, as well as other characters names in the book were changed for privacy reasons. But if you're looking for a book that provides insight, as well as some clarification on a disorder that gets looked over, then I would say definitely check this book out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Katie Thompson.
132 reviews1 follower
January 23, 2023
I finished this book in a day-not hard because it’s really short. I appreciated the author’s ability to look back and authentically report on his own naïveté while trying to rescue (by dating and marrying!!) his patient with BPD. His only escape was just that —to escape—when he finally realized that without her willingness to seek treatment, there was no way he could rescue her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Tori .
602 reviews7 followers
May 1, 2015
I noticed this at the library looking for something else. It was very interesting. I see a lot of complaints in the reviews that it was too short, but I thought it was a great length to cover his experience. I was interested in reading it because of someone I had been around in the past and wondered, but his wife's case seemed so extreme that I really couldn't tell what a milder case might look like from this book. The copy I read has a copyright of 2003. It would be interesting to see an update about what the author has learned since.
Profile Image for Witty.
217 reviews12 followers
January 17, 2012
easy, interesting, one-day read. the book gives no real insight into the mind of someone with borderline personality, but the story is intriguing, almost unbelievable, and you really get a feel for what it's like to deal with someone who has a very severe case of the disorder. i thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would recommend it if you want something quick to read. the author's writing style is very matter-of-fact and not annoying at all.
14 reviews
March 10, 2017
Read to improve my own memoir writing skills as I am writing about a similar subject. Found the story absorbing but the characters flat. I wanted to know more and experience more emotion while reading. This is what I want my book to express. Short chapters were accessible but at the same time too brief. I felt the shortness of the book left me wanting more depth.
Profile Image for Robin Allison.
179 reviews9 followers
December 27, 2007
I learned that my last husband very likely suffered from this disorder, which I had long suspected!
Profile Image for Angie.
1,387 reviews19 followers
March 25, 2009
I found myself holding my breath to see what the next page would bring in this sad but true story . Quick read - difficult to put down .
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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