ABSTRACT
This study examined three empirically based models of the interpersonal functioning of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Samples of 77 patients with BPD and 81 patients with other personality disorders (PDs) were used to test models suggested by Diguer and colleagues (2001), Ruiz, Pincus, and Bedics (1999), and Stern, Herron, Primavera, and Kakuma (1997). The clusters and standard categories of the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method (CCRT) were used to investigate the participants' interpersonal functioning. Results indicated that two of the three models showed an overall difference between patients with BPD and those with other PDs, whereby patients with BPD felt more anxious and ashamed. None of the models tested showed differences between the two groups on the CCRT standard categories.
Subject(s)
Borderline Personality Disorder/psychology , Models, Psychological , Adult , Anxiety/diagnosis , Anxiety/psychology , Borderline Personality Disorder/classification , Borderline Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Cluster Analysis , Conflict, Psychological , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnosis , Depressive Disorder, Major/psychology , Diagnosis, Differential , Empirical Research , Female , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Life Change Events , Male , Personality Disorders/classification , Personality Disorders/diagnosis , Personality Disorders/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Shame , Sociometric Techniques , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This study examined the association between therapist interventions, including interpretations, and patient defensive functioning. The first session of 32 (n = 32) Brief Psychodynamic Interventions were rated for therapist interventions and patient defensive functioning. Lag sequential analysis was used to determine if (a) there are organized sequences of therapist interventions; (b) there are predictable sequences in the patients' level of defensive functioning; (c) there are sequences of therapist interventions leading to change in the patients' defensive functioning; and (d) there are levels of patient defensive functioning leading to organized therapist response. Results suggested that there are organized sequences in the therapists' interventions and that patient in-session defensive functioning is relatively stable. However, no chain of therapist interventions led to a predictable response in the patients' defensive functioning or vice versa.
Subject(s)
Anxiety Disorders/therapy , Defense Mechanisms , Mood Disorders/therapy , Personality Disorders/therapy , Professional-Patient Relations , Psychoanalytic Therapy/methods , Psychotherapy, Brief/methods , Adaptation, Psychological , Adult , Anxiety Disorders/psychology , Conflict, Psychological , Female , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Male , Mood Disorders/psychology , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Personality Disorders/psychology , Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data , Psychoanalytic Interpretation , Psychometrics , Young AdultABSTRACT
This pilot study investigated the defense styles of pedophile sexual offenders. Interviews with 20 pedophiles and 20 controls were scored using the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales. Results showed that pedophiles had a significantly lower overall defensive functioning score than the controls. Pedophiles used significantly fewer obsessional-level defenses but more major image-distorting and action-level defenses. Results also suggested differences in the prevalence of individual defenses where pedophiles used more dissociation, displacement, denial, autistic fantasy, splitting of object, projective identification, acting out, and passive aggressive behavior but less intellectualization and rationalization.
