A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient / Edition 1

by Frank E. Yeomans, John F. Clarkin, Otto F. Kernberg

Overview

Treating borderline patients is one of the most challenging areas in psychotherapy because of the patient's extreme emotional expressions, the strain it places on the therapist, and the danger of the patient acting out and harming himself or the therapeutic relationship. Many clinicians consider this patient population difficult, if not impossible, to treat. However, in recent years dedicated experts have focused their clinical and research efforts on the borderline patient and have produced treatments that increase our success in working with borderline patients. Transference-Focused Therapy (TFP) is psychodynamic treatment designed especially for borderline patients. This book provides a concise and comprehensive introduction to TFP that will be useful both to experienced clinicians and also to students of psychotherapy. TFP has its roots in object relations and it emphasizes that the transference is the key to understanding and producing change. The patient's internal world of object representations unfolds and is lived in the transference with the therapist. The therapist listens for and makes use of the relationship that is revealed through words, silence, or, as often occurs in the case of individuals with some borderline personality disorder, acting out in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. This primer offers clinicians a way to understand and then use the transference and countertransference for change in the patient.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765703552
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	07/31/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.36(w) x 9.47(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Frank E. Yeomans, M.D., Ph.D., is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Co-Director of Training and Senior Supervisor at the Personality Disorders Institute at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division. In addition to private practice in New York City and White Plains, NY, Dr. Yeomans teaches and supervises Transference-Focused Psychother-apy in Quebec, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany. John F. Clarkin, Ph.D., is a Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the Co-Director of the Personality Disorders Institute and the Director of Psychology at Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Clarkin is on the Research Faculty and is a Lecturer at Columbia University's Psychoanalytic Center. His research publications are on the phenomenology of personality disorders, especially borderline personality disorder. For the last twelve years, he has directed a large scale clinical study of the effect of psychodynamic psychotherapy with severely disturbed borderline personality disorder patients. Otto F. Kernberg, M.D., F.A.P.A., is Director of the Personality Disorders Institute at The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division and Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. Kernberg is Past President of the International Psychoanalytic Association and also Training and Supervising Analyst of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. From 1976 to 1995 he was Associate Chairman and Medical Director of The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Westchester Division. He was elected Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1998, and received the 1999 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.

Editorial Reviews

Yeomans, Clarkin, and Kernberg's A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient stands out like a beacon to the rest of the psychodynamic community. In an era of empirically supported therapies, the work of the Cornell group has shown that it can be done, that it can be done superbly, and that it can be done without violating a single one of our cherished ideals as psychoanalytic clinicians. This is an excellent and immensely helpful introduction to the most successful program of intervention research on psychodynamic psychotherapy anywhere. It is a must-have.

Peter Fonagy

A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient provides an excellent introduction and resource guide for object-relations therapy for these [borderline] patients. This is an excellent introductory and reference source forobject-relations therapy with borderline patients. It is user-friendly and practical in its discussions of theory, technique, and long-term considerations for ethical and therapeutic pitfalls. An abundance of resource and bibliographic references are provided to direct the reader to more in-depth discussions of the key topics. The text provides a road map for the budding therapist when encountering splitting, therapeutic boundaries, and threats to the treatment contract. Excellent examples are provided to illustrate the identification of negative object dyads and ways they are manifest in transference material..

PsycCRITIQUES

In this remarkable volume, Yeomans, Clarkin, and Kernberg have accomplished the impossible by combining a highly sophisticated theory of psychopathology and technique with a practical handbook for the treatment of borderline patients. The reader will find here a concise review of a psychoanalytic approach to understanding borderline personality organization. The clinician will also find a detailed step-by-step guide to the complex process of turning the emotionally intense and often chaotic interactions generated by these patients into useful psychotherapeutic dialogue. While this book presents itself as A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient, it has much to offer psychodynamic psychotherapists at all levels of experience in their treatment of patients at all levels of personality organization.

Elizabeth L. Auchincloss

In this remarkable volume, Yeomans, Clarkin, and Kernberg have accomplished the impossible by combining a highly sophisticated theory of psychopathology and technique with a practical handbook for the treatment of borderline patients. The reader will find here a concise review of a psychoanalytic approach to understanding borderline personality organization. The clinician will also find a detailed step-by-step guide to the complex process of turning the emotionally intense and often chaotic interactions generated by these patients into useful psychotherapeutic dialogue. While this book presents itself as A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient, it has much to offer psychodynamic psychotherapists at all levels of experience in their treatment of patients at all levels of personality organization.--Elizabeth L. Auchincloss, M.D., Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Yeomans, Clarkin, and Kernberg's A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient stands out like a beacon to the rest of the psychodynamic community. In an era of empirically supported therapies, the work of the Cornell group has shown that it can be done, that it can be done superbly, and that it can be done without violating a single one of our cherished ideals as psychoanalytic clinicians. This is an excellent and immensely helpful introduction to the most successful program of intervention research on psychodynamic psychotherapy anywhere. It is a must-have.--Peter Fonagy, University College, London

A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient provides an excellent introduction and resource guide for object-relations therapy for these [borderline] patients. This is an excellent introductory and reference source for object-relations therapy with borderline patients. It is user-friendly and practical in its discussions of theory, technique, and long-term considerations for ethical and therapeutic pitfalls. An abundance of resource and bibliographic references are provided to direct the reader to more in-depth discussions of the key topics. The text provides a road map for the budding therapist when encountering splitting, therapeutic boundaries, and threats to the treatment contract. Excellent examples are provided to illustrate the identification of negative object dyads and ways they are manifest in transference material.--PsycCRITIQUES

From the Publisher