Evidence-Based Treatment of Personality Dysfunction: Principles, Methods, and Processes

The treatment of personality disorders is a rapidly evolving focus of contemporary mental health practice. Personality dysfunction is often further complicated by the comorbidity of an Axis I disorder, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, substance abuse, and others. Because personality dysfunction cuts across many clinical domains, practitioners with the most effective therapeutic interventions are in high demand. Accordingly, clinicians must have access to current evidence-based best practices to maximize their treatment impact.

This volume is a collection of the most up-to-date research on personality disorder treatment written by leading scholars of psychopathology and psychotherapy. Organized by different therapeutic approaches, each chapter presents a theoretical framework, evidence-based methods, and clinical examples.

Chapters cover dialectical behavior therapy, psychodynamic theory, interpersonal theory, relational theory, family systems theory, integrative theory, and the unified approach to treating personality disorders. In addition to synthesizing the latest research on personality systems and evidence-based practice, this book also packages key clinical recommendations for the effective treatment of personality dysfunction.

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Theory and Practice of Evidence About Treatment of Personality Dysfunction
   Jeffrey J. Magnavita and William B. Stiles
2. Evidence-Based Assessment and Instrumentation for Personality Disorders
   Stephen Strack
3. Dialectical Behavior Therapy
   Clive J. Robins, M. Zachary Rosenthal, and Prudence F. Cuper
4. Evidence-Based Psychodynamic Therapy With Personality Disorders
   Stanley B. Messer and Allan A. Abbass
5. Evidence-Based Interpersonal Psychotherapy With Personality Disorders: Theory, Components, and Strategies
   Jack C. Anchin and Aaron L. Pincus
6. A Relational Approach to the Treatment of Personality Dysfunction
   J. Christopher Muran, Catherine Eubanks-Carter, and Jeremy D. Safran
7. Couples and Family Therapy for Personality Disorders
   Jay L. Lebow and Amanda A. Uliaszek
8. Integrated Treatment: Combining Effective Treatment Principles and Methods
   W. John Livesley
9. Methods, Components, and Strategies of Unified Treatment: Using Evidence and Personality Systematics to Enhance Outcome
   Jeffrey J. Magnavita
10. Treatment Planning and Formatting: Combining Science and Art in Implementing the Framework of Therapy
    Jeffrey J. Magnavita, Kenneth L. Critchfield, and Louis G. Castonguay

Index

About the Editor

Jeffrey J. Magnavita, PhD, ABPP, FAPA, is a licensed psychologist and marriage and family therapist who has been in clinical practice for close to 30 years. He served as an adjunct professor in clinical psychology at the University of Hartford, where he taught and supervised doctoral students.

Dr. Magnavita has received awards for his work in science and practice. In 2006, he received the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Independent or Institutional Practice in the Private Sector for his work developing a theoretical framework for unified clinical science called personality systematics.

He is the founder of the Unified Psychotherapy Project, whose mission is to catalogue the methods and techniques of unified psychotherapy.

Dr. Magnavita has been featured in two APA videotapes demonstrating personality-guided therapy using a unified approach. He has published extensively and has authored Restructuring Personality Disorders: A Short-Term Dynamic Approach (1997), Relational Therapy for Personality Disorders (2000), Personality-Guided Relational Therapy: A Unified Approach (2005), and a textbook, Theories of Personality: Contemporary Approaches to the Science of Personality (2002). He also was the volume editor of Comprehensive Handbook of Psychotherapy: Vol. 1. Psychodynamic/Object Relations (2002) and the Handbook of Personality Disorders: Theory and Practice (2004). He serves on the editorial board of a number of leading publications and has been a guest editor of a number of special editions of journals.

He was elected to serve as the president of APA's Division of Psychotherapy in 2010 and has presented his work at various conferences and symposiums. He runs ongoing seminars in psychotherapy using videotape recordings as the vehicle for examining the process and technical aspects of treatment.

Dr. Magnavita lives in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, with his wife Anne and three daughters, Elizabeth, Emily, and Caroline.