Psychodynamic Therapy For Personality Pathology

Deftly combining contemporary theory with clinical practice, Psychodynamic Therapy for Personality Pathology: Treating Self and Interpersonal Functioning is an invaluable resource for any clinician seeking a coherent model of personality functioning and pathology, classification, assessment, and treatment. This insightful guide introduces Transference-Focused Psychotherapy -- Extended (TFP-E), a specialized but accessible approach for any clinician interested in the skillful treatment of personality disorders. Compatible with the DSM-5 Section III Alternative Model for Personality Disorders -- and elaborating on that approach, this volume offers clinicians at all levels of experience an accessible framework to guide evaluation and treatment of personality disorders in a broad variety of clinical and research settings. In this book, readers will find: A coherent model of personality functioning and disorders based in psychodynamic object relations theory A clinically near approach to the classification of personality disorders, coupled with a comprehensive approach to assessment An integrated treatment model based on general clinical principles that apply across the spectrum of personality disorders An understanding of specific modifications of technique that tailor intervention to the individual patient's personality pathology Descriptions of specific psychodynamic techniques that can be exported to shorter-term treatments and acute clinical settings Patient assessment and basic psychodynamic techniques are described in up-to-date, jargon-free terms and richly supported by numerous clinical vignettes, as well as online videos demonstrating interventions. At the end of each chapter, readers will find a summary of key clinical concepts, making this book both a quick reference tool as well as a springboard for continued learning. Clinicians looking for an innovative, trustworthy guide to understanding and treating personality pathology that combines contemporary theory with clinical practice need look no further than Psychodynamic Therapy for Personality Pathology: Treating Self and Interpersonal Functioning.

This guide is both compatible with the DSM-5 Section III Alternative Model for Personality Disorders and elaborates on it, offering clinicians at all levels of experience an accessible framework to guide evaluation and treatment of personality disorders.

This book includes the work of 22 contributing writers in addition to the three primary authors, John F. Clarkin, Ph.D., Peter Fonagy, Ph.D., and Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. Each contributor has extensive clinical experience, and some also have research experience, with the assessment and treatment of specific personality disorders.

Offering a sophisticated introduction to a contemporary psychodynamic model of the mind and treatment, this book provides an approach to understanding and treating higher level personality pathology. It describes a specific form of treatment called "dynamic psychotherapy for higher level personality pathology" (DPHP), which was designed specifically to treat the rigidity that characterizes that condition. Based on psychodynamic object relations theory, DPHP is an outgrowth of transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) and is part of an integrated approach to psychodynamic treatment of personality pathology across the spectrum of severity -- from higher level personality pathology, described in this volume, to severe personality pathology, described in a companion volume, Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality: Focusing on Object Relations. Together, they provide a comprehensive description of an object relations theory-based approach to treatment of personality disorders, embedded in an integrated model of personality. As a guide to treatment, Handbook of Dynamic Psychotherapy for Higher Level Personality Pathology provides a clear, specific, and comprehensive description of how to practice DPHP from beginning to end, presented in jargon-free exposition using extensive clinical illustrations. The authors offer a comprehensive description of psychodynamic consultation that includes sharing the diagnostic impression, establishing treatment goals, discussing treatment options, obtaining informed consent, and establishing treatment frame. Throughout, the book emphasizes fundamental clinical principles that enable the clinician to think through clinical decisions moment-to-moment and also to develop an overall sense of the trajectory and goals of the treatment. Among the book's benefits: Takes a diagnosis-driven approach, presenting a clear model of both the psychopathology and its treatment; Explains underlying theory and basic elements of DPHP for those first learning dynamic therapy; Offers an integrated, innovative synthesis of contemporary psychodynamic approaches to personality pathology and psychodynamic psychotherapy; Describes goals, strategies, tactics, and techniques of the treatment to demonstrate its flexibility over a relatively long course of treatment; Provides sophisticated discussion of integrating dynamic psychotherapy with medication management and other forms of treatment. DPHP offers a broad range of patients the opportunity to modify maladaptive personality functioning in ways that can permanently enhance their quality of life. Handbook of Dynamic Psychotherapy for Higher Level Personality Pathology provides experienced clinicians with a hands-on approach to that method, and is also useful as a primary textbook in courses focusing on the technique of dynamic psychotherapy or in courses on psychodynamics.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Adolescents With Severe Personality Disorders is a manual for clinicians who wish to learn an effective psychodynamic treatment for young people with personality disorders (PDs). Despite converging evidence that PDs emerge in childhood and are clearly evident in adolescence, research on effective treatments has been limited. The editors have therefore created a book that details treatment models with strong theoretical foundations and examines systematic interventions designed to explore and resolve the conflicts and behaviors, common to PDs, that impede normal adolescent development. The book begins with an overview of psychopathology and normal adolescent development from a psychodynamic perspective. The next section offers therapeutic approaches, including a discussion of the major goals and strategies of TFP-A, the clinical evaluation and assessment process, establishment of the treatment framework and collaboration with parents, and finally, the techniques and tactics of TFP-A. The last section of the book reviews the phases of treatment and discusses the strengths and competencies a therapist must have to successfully conduct transference-based therapy. Authored by experts in the field (including Dr. Kernberg, a pioneer in object relations), Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Adolescents (TFP-A) with Severe Personality Disorders teaches clinicians how to conduct TFP-A, with the ultimate goal of resolving the intrapsychic restrictions that interfere with normal adolescent development.

The book explores the concepts of personality in the context of its neurobiological and intrapsychic determinants, proposes a new classification and new methods of psychotherapeutic interventions, expands the analysis of severe narcissistic pathology, and details the many complications in the sexual life of patients with personality disorders.

Filling a crucial gap in the clinical literature, this book provides a contemporary view of pathological narcissism and presents an innovative treatment approach. The preeminent authors explore the special challenges of treating patients--with narcissistic traits or narcissistic personality disorder--who retreat from reality into narcissistic grandiosity, thereby compromising their lives and relationships. Assessment procedures and therapeutic strategies have been adapted from transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), a manualized, evidence-based treatment for borderline personality disorder. Rich case material illustrates how TFP-N enables the clinician to engage patients more deeply in therapy and help them overcome relationship and behavioral problems at different levels of severity. The volume integrates psychodynamic theory and research with findings from social cognition, attachment, and neurobiology.

Defined by stable, long-term, subjective distress and/or social impairment, personality disorders affect up to 18% of the population. Social impairment and health care usage are far more prevalent among people with personality disorders than among people with major depressive disorders. Personality disorders are highly prevalent, variable, and notoriously difficult to treat, and they continue to challenge the therapeutic community and represent a formidable public health concern. This volume ably addresses personality disorders as one of the top priorities of psychiatry for the new millennium, offering a thorough and updated review and analysis of empirical work to point up the issues central to developing a therapeutic model for treatment as well as current research challenges. A review of extant research yields the heartening conclusion that psychotherapy remains an effective treatment for people with personality disorders. An examination of psychodynamic treatment for borderline personality disorder speaks to its efficacy. An analysis of the rationale for combining psychotherapy and psychopharmacology emphasizes the importance of identifying temperament and target conditions. A well-documented and reasoned treatise on antisocial personality disorder makes the crucial point that clinicians must acquire a depth of understanding and skill sufficient to determine what the cut-off point is for treatable versus nontreatable gradations. With the caveat that evidence supporting the efficacy of cognitive treatments for personality disorders is slight and that such approaches require tailoring, a strong case is made for their validity. This timely volume both answers and reframes many stubborn questions about the efficacy of psychotherapy for treating personality disorders.