The vital guide to reliable diagnosis and assessment of personality disorders internationally.

The older adult population is booming in the United State and across the globe. With this boom comes an increase in the number of older adults who experience psychological disorders. Current estimates suggest that about 20% of older persons are diagnosable with a mental disorder: Personality disorders are among the most poorly understood, challenging, and frustrating of these disorders among older adults. This book is designed to provide scholarly and scientifically-based guidance about the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders to health professionals, mental health professionals, and senior service professionals who encounter personality-disordered or "difficult" older adults.

"This volume presents the latest theory and research on the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders"--

For decades, The Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM)--the most popular of the projective tests--has been routinely employed for personality assessment and treatment planning. But in recent years, it has not been free from controversy. Criticisms of its validity and empirical support are catalyzing new efforts to strengthen its foundations and document its broad utility. Among the most common--yet also most confusing and challenging--categories of clinical disorders is the personality disorders. However, minimal data have been available on the RIM evaluation of most of those found in DSM-IV. This welcomed book constitutes the first research-grounded, comprehensive guide to the use of the RIM in assessing personality disorders. The first section offers a theoretical overview of personality disorders and constructs a framework and compelling rationale for the legitimate role of the RIM in their assessment. The second, third, and fourth sections present Cluster A disorders--paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal; Cluster B disorders--antisocial and psychopathic, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic; and Cluster C disorders--avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive. The fifth section presents passive aggressive and depressive personality disorders, currently being proposed for DSM inclusion. Each chapter in these four sections includes an extensive description of the disorder, a review of empirical studies of the use of the RIM to assess it, an analysis of the Rorschach variables that may characterize patients diagnosed with it, and a depiction of a real case and discussion of the ways in which the RIM contributed to its formulation. The sixth and final section explores the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and the RIM. Rorschach Assessment of the Personality Disorders brings practical help for clinicians and clinicians-in-training, and suggests new paths for researchers seeking to advance our understanding of the complexities of these disorders.

Since the publication of the acclaimed second edition of Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-IV-TR Personality Disorders, much has changed in how the personality disorders are understood and treated. However, like its previous editions, this new edition is a hands-on manual of the most current and effective, evidence-based assessment and treatment interventions for these challenging disorders. The beginning chapters describes several cutting-edge trends in the diagnosis, case conceptualization, and treatment of them. Then, specific chapters focus on evidence-based diagnosis and treatment interventions for each of the 10 DSM-5 personality disorders. Emphasized are the most recent developments from Cognitive Behavior Therapies, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Analysis System of Psychotherapy, Pattern-Focused Psychotherapy, Mindfulness, Schema Therapy, Transference Focused Psychotherapy, and Mentalization-Based Treatment. As in previous editions, extensive case material is used to illustrate key points of diagnosis and treatment.

The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders reviews and advances this innovative and increasingly popular scheme for diagnosing and evaluating personality disorders. The authors identify the multiple clinical, theoretical, and research paradigms that co-exist in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) and show how the model can aid the practicing mental health professional in evaluating and treating patients as well as its importance in stimulating research and theoretical understanding of this domain. This work explores and summarizes methods of personality assessment and psychiatric evaluation, research findings, and clinical applications of the AMPD, highlighting its usefulness to clinical teaching and supervision, forensic application, and current research. It is a go-to reference for experienced professionals and researchers, those who wish to learn this new diagnostic system, and for clinicians in training.

The interpersonal dimensions of each DSM-IV personality disorder are discussed in depth and and innovative procedures for assessment and diagnosis described.

This groundbreaking book offers a comprehensive examination of personality disorders, from conceptual and theoretical concerns to the practical problems faced by assessing clinicians. What are personality disorders? How should they be conceptualized, and how should they be assessed and diagnosed in clinical practice? For over a century these questions have been at the heart of psychological science. Yet even today, as the recent controversy over proposed changes to the classification of personality disorders in DSM-5 attests, there is hardly consensus on the answers. Personality Disorders offers a comprehensive and provocative tour of a field that is ripe for integration. Contributors who rank among the world's most prestigious clinical and personality psychologists guide readers through the state of our knowledge of personality disorders, from conceptual and theoretical concerns to the practical problems faced by assessing clinicians. They address the advantages and disadvantages of categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosing personality pathology used in the standard diagnostic manuals, as well as the "hybrid" model described in Section III of DSM-5. Recent advances in statistical, methodological, and biogenetic research strategies are applied to the study of personality disorders, with a focus on clinical and empirical approaches to assessment and diagnosis. Theorists describe how psychodynamic, attachment, interpersonal, evolutionary, and cognitive processing approaches offer surprisingly similar models of conceptualizing and treating personality disorders.

The Zanarini Rating Scale for BPD is a nine-item, validated, clinician-based diagnostic interview. It assesses the severity of DSM-IV-based Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms. This scale also measures meaningful changes in symptoms over time. The 0-4 points rating ranges from No Symptoms (0) to Severe Symptoms (4) for the following categories: Affective: Inappropriate anger / frequent angry acts; chronic feelings of emptiness; mood instability Cognitive: Stress-related paranoia / dissociation; severe identity disturbance based on false personal beliefs Impulsive: Self-mutilation and/or suicidal efforts; two other forms of impulsivity Interpersonal: Unstable interpersonal relationships; frantic efforts to avoid abandonment