Psychotherapy Of Personality Disorders

An accurate description of the problems associated with personality disorders can lead to psychotherapists providing better treatment for their patients, alleviating some of the difficulties associated with handling such disorders. The authors draw on existing therapeutic approaches and concepts to offer a treatment model for dealing with personality disorders. Psychotherapy of Personality Disorders clearly discusses the models for different types of personality disorder, along with general treatment principles, focusing on: principles for identifying and classifying types of disorder theoretical analyses that are characteristic of each type practical therapeutic principals that are grounded in the basic theory. The language is clinician-friendly and the therapeutic model is illustrated with clinical cases and session transcripts making this title essential reading for psychotherapists, personality disorder researchers and cognitive scientists as well as professionals with an interest in 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.

This landmark work was the first to present a cognitive framework for understanding and treating personality disorders. Part I lays out the conceptual, empirical, and clinical foundations of effective work with this highly challenging population, reviews cognitive aspects of Axis II disorders, and delineates general treatment principles. In Part II, chapters detail the process of cognitive-behavioral therapy for each of the specific disorders, review the clinical literature, guide the therapist through diagnosis and case conceptualization, and demonstrate the nuts and bolts of cognitive intervention.

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.

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.

An important breakthrough in the treatment of one of the most challenging classes of psychological disorders This book introduces psychotherapists to Integrative Relational Psychotherapy (IRP), a dynamic new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders that capitalizes on recent major advances in the fields of personology and therapy systems theory. Combining a rigorous biopsychosocial model of personality with a relational framework for patient assessment and treatment planning, IRP is designed to produce rapid and sustained systemic change in patients suffering from virtually all DSM-identified personality disorders. With the help of numerous case studies and vignettes drawn from his own practice, Dr. Jeffrey Magnavita provides a remarkably lucid, fully referenced presentation of the theoretical underpinnings of IRP. He arms you with tested relational assessment tools, psychometrics, and interviewing techniques that can easily be incorporated into individual, couples, and family therapy practices. And he develops clear guidelines for creating customized, highly focused treatment strategies--for individual clients or families--that integrate an array of systemic intervention modalities to be administered sequentially or in combination.

A revolutionary, personalized psychotherapy approach for the treatment of Axis II personality disorders, by renowned expert Dr. Theodore Millon Acknowledging the primacy of the whole person, Overcoming Resistant Personality Disorders: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach takes into account all of the complexities of human nature--family influences, culture, neurobiological processes, unconscious memories, and so on--illustrating that no part of human nature should lie outside the scope of a clinician's regard. Part of a three-book series, this book provides you with a unique combination of conceptual background and step-by-step practical advice to guide your treatment of Axis II personality disorders. Detailed case studies are provided throughout the text to illustrate the strategies of personalized psychotherapy for: * The Needy/Dependent Prototype * The Sociable/Histrionic Prototype * The Confident/Narcissistic Prototype * The Nonconforming/Antisocial Prototype * The Assertive/Sadistic Prototype * The Conscientious/Compulsive Prototype * The Skeptical/Negativistic Prototype Destined to become an essential reference for trainees and professionals, this book makes a revolutionary call to return therapy to the natural reality of each patient's life, seamlessly guiding you in understanding the personality and treatment of the whole, unique, yet complex person.