Recent attempts to empirically validate psychoanalytic theory and its contemporary object relational constructs have turned to measuring the concepts with a variety of recently developed assessment scales. This paper reviews the 27 research studies which utilize instruments designed to assess object relations phenomena in subjects diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. It is noted that object relations theory views personality as developing from experiences in early childhood relationships that produce internal self and other representations. The borderline personality organization is seen as having advanced beyond merged self-object representations, but reflects impairment in the developmental level prior to the full integration of part self- and object-representations into whole representations. Fourteen assessment scales are delineated and their contributions to the understanding of object relational phenomena of borderline pathology are reviewed. The measures appeared generally to validate constructs of object relations theory related to borderline personality disorder in terms of diagnostic implications, qualitative descriptions, and therapeutic outcome. Further research with the instruments is recommended to increase confidence in validity levels and widen utilization by clinicians. (Author/LLL)