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.

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, and the ability to entrance high status men.

The book also has a practical purpose. Dutton identifies patterns that may alert readers to borderline behaviour in their own relationships, from sudden shifts of identity and intense idealisation to emotional volatility, risky behaviour, unstable attachments, and the sense that the new relationship is almost impossibly perfect.

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.