This paper explores Transference Focused Psychotherapy, developed by Otto F. Kernberg, and Role Method in Drama Therapy, developed by Robert J. Landy, as treatment modalities for Borderline Personality Disorder. This paper is divided into four sections. The first section traces the origins of the Borderline Personality Disorder psychopathology. The second section presents Kernberg's Object Relations theory and Transference Focused Psychotherapy based on that theory. The third section is a demonstration of Landy's Role Theory and the Role Method as a treatment technique in Drama Therapy. The last section in this paper provides a trial linkage of Object Relations Theory concepts and Role Theory concepts. It describes the pathology of Borderline Personality Disorder and highlights the potential of Role Method in Drama Therapy as a treatment method for Borderline Personality Disorder. Additionally, it connects the techniques of Role Method with those of Transference Focused Psychotherapy.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide presents a model of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its treatment that is based on contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory as developed by the leading thinker in the field, Otto Kernberg, M.D., who is also one of the authors of this insightful manual. The model is supported and enhanced by material on current phenomenological and neurobiological research and is grounded in real-world cases that deftly illustrate principles of intervention in ways that mental health professionals can use with their patients. The book first provides clinicians with a model of borderline pathology that is essential for expert assessment and treatment planning and then addresses the empirical underpinnings and specific therapeutic strategies of transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP). From the chapter on clinical assessment, the clinician learns how to select the type of treatment on the basis of the level of personality organization, the symptoms the patient experiences, and the areas of compromised functioning. In order to decide on the type of treatment, the clinician must examine the patient's subjective experience (such as symptoms of anxiety or depression), observable behaviors (such as investments in relationships and deficits in functioning), and psychological structures (such as identity, defenses, and reality testing). Next, the clinician learns to establish the conditions of treatment through negotiating a verbal treatment contract or understanding with the patient. The contract defines the responsibilities of each of the participants and defines what the reality of the therapeutic relationship is. Techniques of treatment interventions and tactics to address particularly difficult clinical challenges are addressed next, equipping the therapist to employ the four primary techniques of TFP (interpretation, transference analysis, technical neutrality, and use of countertransference) and setting the stage for and guiding the proper use of those techniques within the individual session. What to expect in the course of long-term treatment to ameliorate symptoms and to effect personality change is covered, with sections on the early, middle, and late phases of treatment. This material prepares the clinician to deal with predictable phases, such as tests of the frame, impulse containment, movement toward integration, episodes of regression, and termination. Finally, the text is accompanied by supremely instructive online videos that demonstrate a variety of clinical situations, helping the clinician with assessment and modeling critical therapeutic strategies. The book recognizes that each BPD patient presents a unique treatment challenge. Grounded in the latest research and rich with clinical insight, Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide will prove indispensable to mental health professionals seeking to provide thoughtful, effective care to these patients.

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.

The book describes principles of TFP intervention and contains a wealth of practical guidelines on how to apply TFP to individual patients on a session-by-session basis. This groundbreaking treatment manual focuses on the tasks of the therapist and the sequence of responses by the patient for each phase of treatment.

Dramatherapy uses the healing aspects of drama and theatre as part of the therapeutic process and is increasingly required to supply evidence of its effectiveness. This book aims to provide an evidence base for practice with destructive clients, and raise the profile of dramatherapy as a distinct therapeutic intervention in this field. Dramatherapy and Destructiveness discusses working with those suffering from conduct disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders. Divided into three parts, topics of discussion include: theory and research underpinning the understanding of working with destructiveness in-depth case studies of dramatherapy with a wide range of clients analysis and evaluation of the evidence base for dramatherapy with these clients guidelines for best practice Dramatherapy and Destructiveness covers a wide range of client groups, settings, methods and therapeutic approaches. As well as being an invaluable resource for dramatherapists, this book will be of interest to other therapists, health professionals, social workers, teachers and artists.

Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Empowering and Nurturing People Through Creativity demonstrates how dramatherapy can empower those individuals struggling to live with borderline personality disorder, and help them embrace and control the emotional inner chaos they experience. Based on current research into the aetiology, symptoms and co-morbid disorders associated with BPD (and emotionally unstable personality disorder), this book demonstrates the effectiveness of dramatherapy for individuals and groups on specialist personality disorder wards and in mixed diagnosis rehabilitation units. It also reveals a creative approach for making dramatherapy work in harmony with approaches such as dialectical behaviour therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy. Aimed at those working with service users, and utilising a range of case studies and clinical vignettes, Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder provides an insight into the potential of dramatherapy, which will be welcomed by mental health professionals.

Role playing is the most naturalistic form of psychotherapy. In the safety and privacy of an office, psychiatrists and psychologists guide patients in more competent ways of living, and help patients see how they behave. Role playing, which is also used for diagnostic purposes by therapists, is an unparalleled procedure for letting patients see themselves in action, and helps them establish and assimilate in concrete fashion the insights achieved in the interview. From the point of view of the patient, psychotherapy has two main aspects; the personality of the therapist, which includes the attitude towards the patient and their understanding; and the procedures used by the therapist, such as how he conducts therapy. The therapist sees psychotherapy as a process which helps the patient to understand themselves, to modify their attitudes and levels of aspiration, and generate new ways of behaving. It is a process of change in the sense of abandoning old concepts, coming to new generalizations, and learning new behavior patterns for a current generation. Role playing as a psychotherapeutic technique is not as well understood as it merits. The beliefs that role playing is an exotic method which commits the user to a special school of thought, that it is used only in group therapy, or that it is difficult to learn, are common erroneous notions. This book gives a clear picture of therapeutic role playing, and explains how it is used and for what purposes. A rationale for its value and examples of its use are provided by the author.

Management of Countertransference with Borderline Patients is an open and detailed discussion of the emotional reactions that clinicians experience when treating borderline patients. This book provides a systematic approach to managing countertransference that legitimizes the therapist's reactions and shows ways to use them therapeutically with the patient.

First Published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.