This article describes history of borderline personality disorder from the antiquity to the present. The authors begin their discussion with the presentation of the changes in the method of diagnosis of personality disorders, including the borderline personality disorder. These changes are caused by the introduction of the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The purpose of this paper is to present conceptions that could be called precursory in relation to current understanding of borderline disorder. The authors refer to psychoanalytic theories, on the basis of which the term borderline came into being and to an alternative approach designed to highlight the main features and symptoms of borderline disorder. They also refer to descriptions of borderline personality disorder contained in Polish literature. At the end they show the main, modern approaches to the issue of borderline personality disorder and return to the topic signalized in the introduction talking about changes in the method of diagnosis of borderline personality disorder in DSM-V together with the criticism of this conceptualization.