Self-report studies on empathy in borderline personality disorder (BPD) have built upon the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Nevertheless, the structure of this scale does not enable for comprehensive measurement of the two broader dimensions of empathy, differentiated by its contemporary models, i.e., cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE). Additionally, this line of research has focused almost exclusively on between-group differences. The results of the only study that has hitherto explored the relevant within-group differences demonstrated higher CE than AE in healthy controls (HCs) and the reverse pattern in BPD, thus suggesting a dissociation between empathy types in this disorder (Harari et al., 2010). However, the difference in the second group was slightly below the level of significance and the IRI was the questionnaire employed to measure empathy. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the differences between CE and AE within BPD and HCs groups with the use of a valid self-report tool. 
Thirty women with BPD and 38 healthy women completed, i.a., the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, TAS-20, STAI, and CESD-R. 
The difference between empathy types was medium and significant in the BPD group (p=0.009, η2=0.10), but small and at the verge of significance in HCs (p=0.07, η2=0.05). 
Given the pattern of results in HCs, patients with BPD manifested the dissociation between CE and AE. These findings seem to support Harari and colleagues’ (2010) suggestion that lower-level automatic AE processes may not be effectively regulated by higher-order CE processes in BPD.

06 - FURTHER INDICATION OF A DISSOCIATION BETWEEN COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE EMPATHY IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER