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Borderline Personality Disorderis the classic guide to diagnosis and treatment of borderline personality disorder. It presents a broad and balanced approach to clinical problems that are central to the practices of all mental health professionals.

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Book
Borderline Personality Disorder is a complicated, devastating disorder. It is much more common than is realized.

This is an outstanding book for friends, relatives and therapists.

Unfortunately the above persons are frequently devastated about this person's rages, sarcasm & destructive behavior.

Marriages and friendships are ruined.

Essential reading

an excellent look into the disorder
Even though John G. Gunderson's book Borderline Personality Disorder is written about borderlines, and not to them, it offers an excellent look into the disorder for borderlines, acquaintances of borderlines, and people who work with borderlines. For borderlines, it provides a unique voyeuristic look into Gunderson's frank discussion of the borderline disorder, and it's hostages. Dr. Gunderson begins by naming, defining and subdividing the characteristic criteria and shows how they are displayed by the borderline patient.He offers case examples to support his statements. He details such effects as self destructiveness, aggression, anger, validation, splitting, transferences, psychotic regression, depression, devaluation, dissociation, hospitalization, suicide, pharmacotherapy, therapy and therapist attributes.He has one entire chapter devoted to the borderline name called The Term Borderline. Each chapter is summarized and an index avails the reader quick access to particular topics.At no time does the borderline reader need to fear feeling belittled or embarrassed reading this material.Dr. Gunderson describes the borderline patient with respect and understanding throughtout all the book's 204 pages. ... Read more

Product Description
Chances are that every therapist in private practice will, at some point in his or her career, encounter a client with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It is very hard to help people with BPD, especially within the limited scope of treatment allowed by most managed care programs. But the severity of BPD, in particular the tendency of people with BPD to engage in suicidal and self-destructive behaviors, makes it critical that therapists have every chance for successful intervention. By blending the most effective treatment techniques available for BPD into a clear and systematic protocol, this book gives therapists the best chance available for achieving lasting change in brief therapy. Skills for regulation of out-of-control emotions, including some from the much acclaimed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), make up the core of the program. The book also benefits from the psychopharmacological expertise of its author, John Preston, whose Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Therapists is the essential resource for therapists about psychoactive medication. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An easy read for anyone
This book was written for therapists in private practice, but I'm just someone that has a relative with BPD and I found it easier to understand than many of the other books on the subject that are geared toward the layperson; plus, I liked the idea of having one book with a different angle such as this which is meant to be a clinician's guide.

Integretive Treatment for BPD
This has been the best book I have read on the subject, and I have read many.Clinical information is presented thoroughly, and concisely, with insight beneficial to patient and therapist alike. I have even bought several copies to share with colleagues.THanks for a great reference on this subject!

Great Book

This book is brief, clearly written, practical, and research-based. Preston covers a wide range of useful material on both assessment and treatment. Clinical tools for intervention are presented in the context of a practical understanding of BPD.Preston's work could serve well as a first overview of the area, or as a good refresher of current clinical tools for experienced practitioners.

Confusion Nicely Demystified
Having read his previous work, I'm not surpised that Preston could distill a massive amount of scholarship and personal experience with the most arguable of diagnoses into a hundred sixty-five pages one can actually read and understand -without- a doctorate degree. He has de-mystified Borderline to the point one can grasp it -- and actually -do- something about it -- in a single tome.

That said, I'd like to respectfully submit that he start work on a second edition. Preston missed a few gems here and there that might make the next edition of Integrative Treatment... even -more- effective. As an example, Glen Gabbard's almost throw-away ideas (in -Management of Countertransference wth Borderline Patients-, 1994) about containing reactions and digesting emotions hit me square in the nose one day. To them, I added detoxifying neurochemistry, considering the facts and responding appropriately. (I refer to this "CDDCR" list because it's an easier memonic for me to grasp than Linnehan's "steps for adaptive problem solving" quoted by Preston.)

Likewise, he might stir in some of Fritz and Laura Perls' techniques for indentifying, owning and -processing- emotions. Have you ever met a borderline who -didn't- need a course in affect management? That Borderline is hugely co-morbid with bipolar is self-evident to most who work with such patients.

Regardless, I expect I'll (selectively) recommend this book to some of them (and/or their family members, as well). But I'll do so -carefully-. The term "borderline" is still a perjorative in the world, including the acute wards and community mental health clinics in my area. But Preston's work here has helped me to be able to explain it to people in a way that defuses the worst of the "sharp stick in the eye" syndrome.

This is a very useful text for any mental health professional at any level, and all the more so because it is as accessible to front-line floor techs and SAP counselors as it will likely be for struggling MFT and LCSW interns. The Psy.D., Ph.D. or MD who sniffs at it as "beneath me" will do themselves a decided disservice. If this book fails to become a mandate for MA- and MS-level students, it'll be a real shame.

a star
I have read many books on borderline personality disorder and how to treat the fragile population.This brings much of the wisdom together in an easy to access format. Full of wisdom ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Boats Against the Current
I am neither a clinical masters' student, nor am I the parent of a recovering borderline. I am a Psy.D.; a neuropsychologist who has been an MFT, an NCAC and a CADC. I have been "on the floor" with borderlines since 1991. I have observed hundreds of them and worked "in the trenches" with scores of them. I still do.

So. When I noticed in the brochure that came with my new DBT book that Dr. P. had a new book out on BPD, I figured, "Joel is a famous name in BPD; let's get that sucker." I read. I read. And I read. I kept hoping. But I also found myself trying my best not to throw it out my third-floor window.

I'm wasn't sure what was happening. "Maybe I have expectations that aren't well supported." "Maybe everything I've ever read is wrong." "Maybe I've spent almost 20 years with some other =kind= of borderline." "Maybe =I'm= the one who's nuts."

I've been down the borderline road with Sharon Ekleberry, with Teddy Millon, with Otto Kernberg, with Bill Meissner, with Aaron Beck and Art Freeman, with Bessel van der Kolk, with Judith Herman, with Michael Stone, with John Gunderson, with Jim Masterson, with Harold Searles, with Lorna Benjamin, with Neil Bockian and Valarie Porr, with Paul Mason, with Stan Greenspan, with Pia Mellody, with John Preston, with Glenn Gabbard, with Linda Dimeff and Kelly Koerner, and even with Joel's hero, the esteemed (me, =too=, baby) Marsha Linehan. I am =not- some Johnny-come-lately to this topic. I have written a dozen or more professional pieces on the matter.

This book =stinks=.

I have never ever said this before about a "clinician's book." But I simply don't know what else =to= say.

If you're a professional looking for Clues to the Mystery, this is not where you're going to find them. Paris defies almost every major theory and millennial-era, empirical convention there is on this diagnosis. He seems to understand little or nothing about the borderline spectrum, about the non-physical causes of BPD, about the nature of traumatic memories and the repression thereof (which he denies is possible), about the various degrees of borderlinism, about the co-morbidity with other personality disorders, about the obvious co-morbidity with the bipolar spectrum disorders in many BPD patients, about the "moving target" nature of BPD expression from one session to another, about the very useful psychodynamic and behavioristic -- as well as cognitive -- conceptualizations of BPD... I could go on and on.

Worse, he says one thing (often a dozen times), and then says... another, refuting what he said before (e.g.: relative to environmental vs. biogenetic factors). His emphasis is ostensibly on efficacy research into the diverse treatments out there for BPD, but there is nothing of any meaningful clarity that emerges from all his citations. In his view, one treatment is as good as any other.

And =that= is simply =not= the case.

Frankly... I stuck it out for 150 pages and skimmed the rest. But I was still dumbfounded.

If you're looking for something useful at the more or less introductory level, try =Stop Walking on Eggshells=, =I Hate You; Don't Leave Me=, or =New Hope for People with Borderline Personality Disorder=.

If you're on the way to licensure, read the best APA material, then head off into =Personality Guided Therapy=, =Cognitive Therapy of the Personality Disorders=, =Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of Borderline Personality Disorder=, =My Work with Borderline Patients=, and =Integrative Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder=.

If you're a veteran in the trenches looking for theory in depth, Otto Kernberg, Bill Meissner, John Gunderson, Jim Masterson, Neil Bockian, Judith Lewis Herman, Bessel van der Kolk and the man who saw it all coming a century ago, Pierre Janet.

But fer crissake, don't bother with this. Google "Joel Paris False Memory Syndrome" and see why.

Excellent book!
I am a student in a Counseling Master's program and I had a group presentation to do on evidence-based treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder.It has been awhile since I studied this disorder in depth, so I knew there was a lot of literature out there, but where do you start?This book was a lifesaver for me!!My presentation was during finals when I had little time, and certainly not enough time to sift through the gazillions of research studies of Borderline at my university's huge library.This book was clear, concise, and best of all it was actually easy to understand for someone that is not extremely well-versed in all of this (in other words, I am still at the beginning stages of learning the ins and outs of counseling and I still understood what was going on in this book).Also, the book was not a huge text, so I was able to read the majority of it and still get a wealth of info from it for my presentation.The book has charts/tables that go over all the major studies, and if nothing else, points you in the direction of where you should go if you have to find out more specific info (methods, procedures, specific findings of study).This is a great book to learn about the various methods of effective treatment for BPD.Borderline is a very challenging cluster of issues within one's interpersonal relationships, and this book helps to dispell where a therapist should start.Highly recommended if you need an overview of the effective treatment for Borderline!!

Excellent Overview - and Hope
This is an excellent review of what has been shown to work and what clearly does not in the treatment of this awful disease.Unlike other books on BP that are aimed at practitioners and are so dense with jargon they are unintelligible, this one is accessible to people without a psych PhD.It should be very useful to families of BP patients in assessing the effectiveness of their loved one's treatment and therapist.I particularly appreciate the author's unequivocal condemnation of psychotropic drugs, which have not been shown to be of significant help for BP patients and often make things worse.I watched the pills wrench my beautiful, talented daughter from an adolescent depression into a manic breakdown and a horrifying descent into BPD, psychosis and personality disintegration.She is now in the earliest stage of recovery, thanks to a hard-nosed therapist (trained in object relations) and large doses of brain-supporting supplements.In fact, my one disappointment with Paris' book is that it doesn't sufficiently address nutritional therapies in recovering from BPD.I assume that good data just does not exist yet.My hope is that someone will be able to correct this glaring omission in the near future.Fish oil, anyone? ... Read more

Product Description
The book was first published in Dutch by Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds - this book is an English language translation, translated from the original Dutch Language version by Jolijn Drost. The book offers a conceptual model of BPD, a treatment model and an array of methods and techniques for treating BPD clients. It covers treatment planning, the therapeutic relationships, cognitive and behavioural techniques, specific strategies, behavioural pattern breaking and the termination of therapy. The appendices contain handouts for patients including a biographical diary, forms for homework assignments and problem solving and a positive self statement log. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent resource for motivated clinical providers
Schema therapy is not an easy treatment model to master.Even for experienced cognitive-behavioral therapists, it is a complex approach to our most complex cases.I encourage anyone wanting to master this method to buy the latest materials from Jeffrey Young's schema therapy web site.

You can also do a lot worse than to buy and closely study this book.You may not knowingly treat borderlines, but after reading this book you may recognize borderline pathology in some of your current clients.Their presentation of mode work, working with the different modes as they appear in treatment, working with modes over time, and their matrix of cognitive, affective and behavioral strategies in the past, present, and future all help me to structure my therapeutic work much better than I could before reading this book.Several tables I have copied off into forms I can have on a clipboard while I work on particular cases, as a way of keeping track of what I need to be doing.

Upshot:Unless you are currently being supervised by an experienced schema therapist who knows Cluster B treatment issues, you will gain a lot from this book that it is hard to acquire any other way.This book is even more helpful than the chapter in Young's book, which itself is quite helpful. ... Read more

Product Description
Mentalizing - the ability to understand oneself and others by inferring the mental states that lie behind overt behavior - develops during childhood within the context of a secure attachment relationship. It is crucial to self-regulation and constructive, intimate relationships. Failure to retain mentalizing, particularly in the midst of emotional interactions, is a core problem in borderline personality disorder and results in severe emotional fluctuations, impulsivity, and vulnerability to interpersonal and social interactions. Mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder is a 'How to Do It' book outlining a clinically proven treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder. Containing illustrative clinical examples, it details precisely how to develop and implement treatment and is a companion to the highly successful book Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder - mentalization based treatment. This practical guide explains how to treat borderline patients by helping them develop a more robust mentalizing capacity within the context of an attachment relationship.It provides the practitioner with everything they need to know about how to practise mentalizing treatment in day patient and out-patient settings. Enough theory is provided to orientate the clinician and there is step-by-step practical advice on the assessment of mentalizing and interpersonal relationships, how to structure treatment, the use of basic mentalizing interventions and how to apply them, as well as information on what not to do. In addition, it includes a check list to be used in the assessment of mentalizing and a self-rating exercise for practitioners to evaluate their adherence to mentalizing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I haven't finished the book yet
For someone in the psychology field, I have to say this book is a must. Especially for those of us wanting to further our studies past undergrad work.

The book is quite dense at first, but after a while you get into the author's "writing groove" and it begins to read somewhat smoothly. ... Read more

Product Description
Author Lynn Melville believes that people caught in abusive relationships -- whether Borderline or not -- are stuck in the middle of the Grief Cycle. They are unable to move forward to acceptance of the reality of the abuse they're receiving, because their abuser continues to change, back and forth from the person who acts like they love them -- to the person who hurts them.

Melville began writing Breaking Free from Boomerang Love for herself, words to help her stay focused on reality. Over time, her writing began to change into letters to others who were still stuck in abuse.

Written in a daily affirmation style, readers will re-feel and finish the grieving of their pain, laugh and then watch their denial disappear, achieve a new strength to stand up for themselves, and re-connect and reach for guidance from the God of their understanding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

MUST read if you're in a relationship with a BPD/NBPD
This book has been a salvation for me and I often carry it with me.Being the partner of a NBPD husband, this book has given me so much comfort.Reading the short verses and the drawings help lift me up when I'm down... if you are in the situation, you MUST read this!!!I wish they made a pocket version.

OUTSTANDING !!!
It's as if Lynn Melville's book "Boomerang Love" was written specifically for me ! I finally got out of a 22 month relationship with a BPD and this book helped me SO much to understand why my BPD partner was the way she was - from the Jekyl and Hyde personality, the lies, the broken promises, lack of values, moral compass &conscience to the love me / hate me treatment, impulsive spending, using sex to get what she wanted and the insatiable need for attention - its ALL here! I just wish I had found this book eighteen months ago and saved myself SO much heartache. Fortunately for me, after going back to the BPD WAY too many times, I finally got out before I bought the ring and built the house I was planning - now she is someone else's problem as within a week she had moved on to another victim. Lynn has done a TREMENDOUS job of detailing what its like to live with a BPD and offers, in a very thoughtful, supportive way, the knowledge that I needed to figure things out and make the break. THANK YOU LYNN MELVILLE !!!!!!

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK.
IF YOU ARE DEALING WITH A BPD DISORDERED LOVED MATE\LOVED ONE THEN THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ.IT WAS WRITTEN BY THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE.WITH THEIR POINT OF VIEWS.AMAZING INSIGHT.PRACTICAL ADVICE FROM REAL WORLD VICTIMS OF BPD'S. I WAS ABOUT TO MARRY A WOMAN WHO WAS ABUSIVE.SHE WAS ACTIVELY CHEATING ON ME & JUST ACTING TERRIBLE.BEYOND ALL THAT I FELT COMPELLED TO HELP HER & MARRYING HER.WHEN THE BOOK ARRIVED, I PUT OF READING IT UNTIL I WAS READY.WHEN I WAS READY, A WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE OPENED UP TO ME. IT WAS LIKE A CONTINUOUS DUTCH UNCLE TALK THAT I NEEDED BADLY.

Perpetuating myths and stereotypes about an entire group of people
As a borderline person who spent a year and a half in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, I take great offense when people say that you should run screaming from borderlines, and that relationships with a borderline person are necessarily turbulent, unhappy, and something to be gotten out of.When I found a therapist who said BPD could be managed, even "cured," and that she would stick with me throughout the treatment (as opposed to getting sick of me and firing me as a client because I was too great of a suicide risk), I began to get well.I was able to enter into a healthy relationship with someone who was NOT codependent.I note that another reader said that the only way a borderline could have a relationship was with a codependent, similarly self-loathing person.This just perpetuates the notion that we can't get better, we can't be sane, and we are people who should fundamentally be avoided.The stigma around this disorder causes a lot of people who are genuinely suffering and seeking help to be turned away by therapists and partners over and over again.According to this book and the user comments, it's all about saving yourself from becoming involved in a relationship with a borderline, something to be avoided AT ALL COSTS!Is there a book out there that suggests avoiding any other mentally ill people, shutting them out, getting away from them?No.If you're schizophrenic, bipolar, or have OCD, you're allowed to have relationships, but if you're borderline, you should be treated like a leper.Where is the logic in this?BPD can be very successfully managed.I used to be in and out of the hospital at least once a year, but that hasn't happened in four years now.Why?DBT.Please, please, if you are in a relationship with a borderline, consider suggesting DBT to them, and make sure they know you support and love them.We can be wonderful, vibrant, talented contributors to society.Why not attempt to love us and support us in finding effective treatment, rather than listening to this book and abandoning us?This just perpetuates a cycle that can, in fact, be ended.

A Must Read for those who love a BPD
Each page of this book brings new revelations to those of us who have been involved and even still love a significant other or parent with BPD.It brings mental relief because the author so clearly defines what terror, pain, bewilderment and exhilaration we have been through.She provides guidelines in each chapter of how to be good to ourselves and reach out for spiritual support.The checklists alone are worth the read as you say "yes" outloud to line after line of perplexing BPD behaviour that you have never had detailed before and you thought you were the only person going through it.

God bless all of us who love the BPD, as the author says, "we are the best of the best", the most giving, forgiving, understanding and loving people who have commmitted their hearts to loving these afflicted people.God bless the BPD's as well, whose suffering we cannot understand and who we do not hold entirely responsible for the harm they bring to us.They did not ask for the emotional burden and pain they battle every day.We can get away if we must, but they never can.

... Read more

Product Description
"A superb, up-to-date feminist analysis of the borderline condition. . . . Characterized by stereotypically feminine qualities, such as poor interpersonal boundaries and an unstable sense of self, borderline diagnosis has been questioned by many as a veiled replacement of the hysteria diagnosis. . . . Wirth-Cauchon includes narratives from women exhibiting the theoretical underpinnings of the borderline diagnosis. . . . The author is rigorous in her analysis, and mainstream academics and diagnosticians should take note lest they create yet another label that disregards the contradictory and conflicting expectations experienced by so many women. Includes an excellent bibliography and a wealth of good reference. Highly recommended."-Choice"This book contributes to a rich, feminist interdisciplinary theoretical understanding of women's psychological distress, and represents an excellent companion volume to Dana Becker's book titled Through the Looking Glass."-Psychology of Women Quarterly"Wonderfully written. . . . [The] argument proceeds with an impeccable and transparent logic, the writing is sophisticated, evocative, even inspired. This work should have enormous appeal."- Kenneth Gergen, author of Realities and Relationships "Impressive in its synthesis of many different ideas . . . both clinicians and people diagnosed with BPD may find much of value in Wirth-Cauchon's thoughtful and provoking analysis."-MetapsychologyAt the beginning of the twentieth century, "hysteria" as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis was primarily applied to women. In fact, the term itself comes from the Greek, meaning "wandering womb." We have since learned that this diagnosis had evolved from certain assumptions about women's social roles and mental characteristics, and is no longer in use. The modern equivalent of hysteria, however, may be borderline personality disorder, defined as "a pervasive pattern of instability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and mood, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts." This diagnosis is applied to women so much more often than to men that feminists have begun to raise important questions about the social, cultural, and even the medical assumptions underlying this "illness." Women are said to be "unstable" when they may be trying to reconcile often contradictory and conflicting social expectations.In Women and Borderline Personality Disorder, Janet Wirth-Cauchon presents a feminist cultural analysis of the notions of "unstable" selfhood found in case narratives of women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. This exploration of contemporary post-Freudian psychoanalytic notions of the self as they apply to women's identity conflicts is an important contribution to the literature on social constructions of mental illness in women and feminist critiques of psychiatry in general.Janet Wirth-Cauchon is an associate professor of sociology at Drake University. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not a self-help, "information" book. . .
All the previous reviewers hated this book, and while I can see some of their points, I think they approach the book expecting it to be a "how to" guide for the disorder.It is definitely not.The author intends it to be a discussion of how the diagnosis originated and how these presupositions still guide, knowingly and unknowingly, the diagnosis's conceptualization.These are valid issues for acadamics (not nearly as dirty a word as what the first reviewer insinuates) as well as mental health clinicians.The diagnosis is not as definitive or helpful as what people think, and framing it in a more feminist light helps remove some of the pejorative connotations within the field.

An Unfortunate Deliverance of Academe
The rating is somewhat misleading.This book deserves no stars at all.

This book is one of many unfortunate products of a small portion of the academic community that has isolated itself from an academic world generally dedicated to argument, reason, evidence, and truth.The book displays little evidence for a consideration, let alone a tolerance, for the truth, but in its stead offers a fantasy tale about a horrible illness that grips so many within our society.

As is so tiresomely typical of these sorts of texts, we are fed a weary history of old practices concerning mental illness (yes indeed, there was ignorance back then), with absolute ignorance concerning current research (please folks, get up to date), coupled with loose metaphoric fantasia substituting for any reasoned argument.To offer one example (a prominent one in the book), scattered references to a "flood" or a "torrent" of emotion taken from selected sources in the field is somehow translated into references to the menstrual cycle in women.The "somehow" is impossible to discern.I would not recommend readers to attempt to decipher any logical steps to the conclusion.

It is a sad fact that this comes out of academe.And it is harmful.People who have BPD or who are the loved ones of BPDs need information, not feminist fantasies.For any who wishes information I would recommend "Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified," by Robert Friedel.

For the record, I am an academic in the field of Philosophy, and I have a loved one who is suffering from BPD.

Not Recommeneded
This book is not recommended for the average reader who just seeks information about borderline personality disorder. In fact, it is loaded with abstract erudition, it is hard to read, the information is often redundant,and it takes on a feminist approach in explaining the pathology.

boring, too technical
I have read a number of books on depression and Borderline Personality Disorder.This is by far the worst; it was all I could do to finish it.It is very technical, hard to read, and boring, repeating itself repeatedly :)I wouldn't recommend it - there are a lot of better books out there on the subject (like Lost in the Mirror). ... Read more

Product Description
Randi Kreger draws on extensive new research to provide advice forsuccessfully navigating life with someone who has borderlinepersonality disorder. Step-by-step suggestions--many from users of theauthor's comprehensive website-- help readers set and enforce personallimits, communicate clearly, cope with put-downs and rage, develop asafety plan, and make realistic decisions. Throughout the text areworksheets, checklists, and exercises that build on one another andenable readers to apply the suggestions to their lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Great for friends & family of BP's but insensitive to BP's people
This book has really helped my boyfriend understand and cope with my bp, however when I read from it, I feel a bit offened.As if we are all grouped together and everything we do is because of our bp- like we aren't allowed normal human emotions.As long as whoever is reading it can recognize the book is a generalization and not every area applies to the bp in their life- I believe it's quite helpful.

Stop Walking on Eggshells Workbook
The workbook compliments the book "Stop Walking on Eggshells."
The book is a must have for anyone who has someone in their life that has Borderline Personality Disorder. It will give you the tools to take your life back! You must take care of yourself first....Best of luck..

Excellent
This is a very good book. This book and its companion, Walking on Eggshells, can bring sanity where you thought none existed.Welcome back to Kansas, Dorothy.

Great to work through with your spouse...if they will let you...
This is the companion workbook to Randi's SWOE book.If you can get your BPD spouse to work through it with you, that would be a big step towards making your lives better.If you're already separated, it will help the non-BPD figure out what went wrong, and that it's not his/her fault.

Life changing
This workbook is life changing. I live with the BP in my life and don't feel "crazy" anymore. The tools are amazing and work! It brought much healing to my life. Thank you. ... Read more

Product Description
Harvard University, Boston.Presentation of the author's theories on the effects of childhood sexual abuse on emotional development. 26 contributors, 20 U.S. DNLM: Borderline Personality Disorder - etiology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is an excellent review of a sensitive topic.
Many clinicians and patients are puzzled by the connection between trauma and bpd.This is a well-edited collection of scholarly, thoughtful, and balanced perspectives on these topics.This book is highly recommended forall readers interested in this painful area. ... Read more

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Description

When Julie becomes so mentally ill she can no longer cope in society, she is put in a psychiatric hospital with the support of her friends. Once inside the hospital, Julie faces some terrible challenges; her main issue is trusting those in authority. She had uncontrollable reactions, such as self harming and suicidal behaviours when something is out of control, but with the help of her friends and a doctor she gradually starts to get these under more control. But the world of a Borderline is never an easy ride, and Julie portrays the tribulations that this diagnosis may cause.

Julie's journey portrays how difficult a patient's role in the hospital is when the staff are met with a talented, yet troubled young individual. How can they cope with Julie's issues without belittling her or making her feel worse?

This book will work to sympathise with those who have had similar experiences in hospital and were unable to vent out their problems. This book will also thrive is teaching mental health staff what is perhaps going through a patient's mind. This book challenges staff to look at their approach and language in the way that they treat patients, particularly those with Borderline Personality Disorder. ... Read more

Product Description
This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between gender, the experience of psychological distress that we currently call borderline personality disorder, and the borderline diagnosis as a classification of psychiatric disorder. It offers a new emphasis on elements of female socialization as critical to the understanding of the development of symptoms currently labeled borderline, and should appeal to psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other mental health professionals as well as graduate students in these disciplines. The book will also be valuable to those involved in the fields of women's studies, psychology of women, sociology, and the history of medicine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A great idea for a book, but didn't quite work for me
Eclipses is an unusual mixture of a biography and a general information text that didn't quite work for me.

The author draws on her own and fellow patients' experiences of recovering from BPD in a DBT-based inpatient programme. This book could have been a vivid description of what it's like to suffer from BPD, an insight into how treatment works from a patient's perspective, and a source of hope for other sufferers. You can find glimpses of all those things in Eclipses, but they don't shine through because of the way the book is written and structured. It's not a conventional biography that tells a story from beginning to end. Instead, it's presented as an informative book about BPD, which uses the author's and others' experiences as case studies to illustrate points.

Does it work better as a source of information, then? For me it didn't because the focus is so narrow. The chapter on what BPD is only describes the symptoms of a few patients (who have multiple diagnoses), so that some of the key features are not mentioned at all, and the reader could easily be misled into thinking that symptoms of depression or other disorders are also symptoms of BPD. The chapters on treatment describe the programme at one hospital (now closed) in great detail, but there is no general information on other approaches, or even on how DBT might work in a different setting.

If you're looking for some reassurance that people can and do recover from BPD, Eclipses is worth a read. If you're looking for facts, it also makes an excellent case study of how a particular treatment works from the point of view of the patient. However, it is hard work to read as a biography, and if you're looking for general information on BPD and treatments, there are many better books out there such as The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide.

Heartfelt & insightful but not a self help guide
I purchased this, along with several other books, to try to find help for a loved one suffering from B.P.

This book was by far the easiest to read, and was far more insightful than the outdated "I Hate You-Don't Leave Me* Understanding the Borderline Personality" book (it isn't a bad book, but it is in dire need of updating).

Pros: Gives an excellent insider's view of what having Borderline Personality is like.Gives great case examples of real people who have been successful in their treatment of B.P.Gives an in-depth look, from the patientsf eyes, of DBT Dialectical Behavior Therapy; which has been shown to be effective in treating B.P.Easy to read, yet at the same time engaging.

Cons: Poorly organized, seems to jump around a bit much; too many acronyms make it difficult to remember who the author is referring to.Not a self-help manual or a guide to helping people with the disorder.More of a portrait of B.P. from an insiderfs perspective.

I recommend this book for anyone who is looking to better understand this disorder, as well as anyone with a loved one suffering from B.P.It will help dissolve many of the common stereotypes associated with the disorder.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to enroll in a long-term hospital program that specializes in B.P.The book may be a bit frustrating for those of you, who like me, are trying to orchestrate some level of decent care from the meager resources that are available.

It's worth reading, but remember that it is only a portrait of how a handful of women overcame their disorder in what sounds like an exceptional facility (which, sadly, has now been closed).

Good Material, Just Not Balanced
I'm the webowner of Borderline Personality Disorder Today. Theauthor has some really good material in the book about DBT and how it hasassisted her in her own recovery. I believe sharing her experiences as anin-patient at Highland Hospital are particularly important. However, thebook focuses on only one aspect of recovery as if DBT is the *only* avenuethere is to recovery from the BPD. Medication is not discussed which isextremely vital especially with what the research is saying about howhelpful medications are in providing assistance with many of the BPDsymptoms. The only thing I disagreed in the book was her statement"While disability is a godsend for many former patients who do nothave sufficient financial resources, the public needs to be made aware thatsuch a resource is an enabler rather than a tag of inability." I haveread that as many as 33 % of BPDs are disabled, not because they want to beenabled, but because their illness has truly prevented them from sustaininga job. Would I recommend you buy the book? Yes, there is some good materialthere there that is important for BPD recovery.

Heartfelt, Understanding, but flawed.
As a therapist, Melissa's personal accounts are inspiring and heartfelt.She presents many of the difficulties of this disorder in an understanding & compassionate way.Very happy to see her inclusion of DialeticBehavior Therapy info & materials.However, I don't think the book isvery well organized.Example:Chp. 2 on Inpatient Therapy seems a bitpremature & could be frightening to clients who are new to theawareness of their diagnosis. There are examples (the one of the otherpatients using restraint on another patient) that if they are questionable,and I believe they are, shouldn't have been included.I would hesitate torecommend this book to my clients because of such examples although I amalways looking for new materials to inspire hope in my clients and to gettheir cooperation for the use of DBT materials.I would encourage Melissato do a revised version looking at content organization, making the writingmore fluid, and the use of appropriate helpful examples.

Excellent for anyone seeking understanding of BPD.
Written in first-person by someone who truly knows Borderline Personality Disorder, this novel-that-reads-like-non-fiction is A MUST for those who wish to understand and help a loved one with this illness.The writergives a portrait of several other patients, thus providing a poignant lookat the shapes and intensities BPD can have. ... Read more

Product Description
Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are among the most challenging patients for clinicians to treat. Their behaviors and emotions can shift abruptly. As a result, these patients can seem like therapeutic moving targets, and improvement can be vexingly slow.

A Developmental Model of Borderline Personality Disorder is a landmark work on this difficult condition. The book emphasizes a developmental approach to BPD based on an in-depth study of inpatients at Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland, during the years 1950 through 1975 and the authors’ thirty years of clinical and supervisory experience. Using information gleaned from the original clinical notes and follow-up studies, the authors present four intriguing case studies to chart the etiology, long-term course, and clinical manifestations of BPD.

This book will help practitioners develop understanding and empathy for these patients by illuminating the disorder to help interpret its causes and course. Clinicians will find a wealth of insight and guidance for providing individual psychotherapy and designing the best mental health services to optimize outcomes in patients with BPD. ... Read more

Product Description
This book chronicles the life of Dr. Leah Sims and her battle with borderline personality disorder. She was sexually abused at the age of six, was a prostitute at sixteen, was a soldier at seventeen, and was married five times. She became a psychologist and a philanthropist. Leah is a true inspiration to women who suffer from borderline personality disorders. Her life teaches us the lessons of faith, love, loss, determination, and success.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

awesome
This book is awesome!!! I started reading it late the other night and couldn't put it down. awesome i tell you!! It feels like im there in the story and can place myself in the settings of the story. Such a tragic story!

A must read for African-American women, looking to break the cycle
Dr. Leah is off the hook and yet I feel myself connecting so well with her.Growing up in a rural town with a dysfunctional family I could definitely see myself within the revolving pages.There were moments where I was sad, moments where I laughed out loud, and moment where I was just in disbelief.But regardless of Dr. Leah situations, she managed to "Keep the faith." ... Read more

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Description

In the UK today approximately 1.6 million people awoke to the same problem (that's if they'd managed to sleep) - how to survive another day alongside the torrid and turbulent emotions associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Although you'd struggle to find a room big enough to house them all at once, it's not a 'popular' mental health problem and has received little publicity. The fact that you've heard of it at all probably means you have it or somebody close at hand does. In the immense isolating pain and confusion that BPD can bring with it, this book is here to remind you that you are not alone - there are at least 1,599,999 others who feel their own personal version of your suffering. This unique anthology brings you some of their voices.

The included poetry and prose features not only pieces by people with BPD, but also the viewpoint of carers and treatment providers. This book won't teach you the facts and figures about BPD or the latest theories as to what causes or treats it, but it will provide the aspect of BPD that is almost always missed - how it feels.

About the Authors

The authors who have contributed to this work have one thing in common - they all have a lived experience of BPD. Whether they are struggling with the day to day challenges of how to manage the rollercoaster of emotions and behaviours for themselves, or looking on as a loving carer or concerned professional, BPD permeates their daily existence. Yet despite this, there are moments for reflection, insight, and beauty - where they can find the time, the space and the words to convey their experience to others who will recognise it all too well and to those who may be struggling to understand what is happening in the internal worlds of those they care about. The authors are of all ages, from all walks of life, and all professions. BPD has no regard for boundaries of age, gender or social status. Here are the words of your lovers, your sons, daughters...
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (14)

Living in the Dead Zone: Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison: Understanding Borderline Personality Disorders
Psychoanalyzing the dead?That's a good one.
I think I have to quote Britney Spears here."Huh?"
All one needs to do is go to an AA meeting and you will find hundreds of people with your so called "borderline personality disorder."It's called alcoholism.Try growing up with them for parents.Talk about needed therapy.

Assumptions
The authors made an assumption about Jim before research was undertaken and I feel this coloured subsequent research. There's much more information available about Jim than was read by the authors who seem to have taken information that supports their point of view and ignored the rest. Jim's stage persona was a carefully orchestrated act based on a book called "Mass Hysteria and Crowd Control".He was playing a part. They were after all film graduates and film heavily influenced their stage presentations. Jim's poems were apocalyptic but that was his genre. The therapy sessions in the book are non-existent and are based on the authors' own preconceptions. Jim was extremely shy (said one Door and confirmed by another), there is some evidence he had a nervous breakdown, his home life was volatile and he drank. He couldn't keep up the act. He hated heroin and wouldn't take it deliberately. Where's the examination of the paramedics' reports to the Parisian police?Increasingly severe asthma attacks led to a prescription which he neglected to fill. A rock star's death by something as common as a heart attack caused by chronic asthma is not newsworthy. I'm disappointed in the lack of examination of all evidence before drawing a conclusion of BPD. The authors have analysed the myth, not the man.

Finally an explanation that makes sense!
Nowhere in the literature is there an analysis and narrative like this. Intense, compelling and riveting, the book explains why these two icons were so tragically self-destructive. In doing so,
they have illuminated and clarified for the public, the complex nature of the poorly understood borderline disorder. So many peoplecan benefit from reading "Living in the Dead Zone".Bravo gentlemen!

Insightful analysis of two deepyl troubled people
I was unable to put this book down once I began reading the accounts offered by Faris and Faris.Their analysis of the borderline disorder was so disturbingly realistic in my own experience with my son that I thought they were writing to me.The therapy sessions they created with Janis and Jim were not only revealing but astonishing when you consider how good their music was.

This book is a most excellent read, filled with insights into the behavior of the borderline. And I truly did appreciate the sociological observations as well which contextualized the 1960s so well...and I do remember them as if it was yesterday.

Final Response to J
To J one more time, I promise:

My brother and I have had a good laugh at your latest response, not that your other responses weren't just as laughable. But your latest was the most sweeping and most revealing and therefore the most pathetic. This will, however, be our last effort to have a reasonable discussion with you.We see no reason to continue a conversation with someone who reveals his ignorance and arrogance in almost every sentence.You love Jim Morrison, you love his poetry, you dismiss entirely psychiatry and psychology, we are completely wrong about everything. You're the only one who apparently can KNOW anything.And you think we don't understand you?

In the cute way that people who really don't understand a discipline do, you accuse us of psychoanalyzing you. There's no doubt that you do not understand the fields of psychology or psychiatry, and psychoanalysis-they are all very different modes of investigation, not that you would trouble yourself with such distinctions since you already know everything you need to know from the misreadings of Szasz, and Laing.You might try reading pioneers in the field, who really do KNOW something from extensive empirically-based and theoretically well-grounded research. Read John Gunderson's work from Harvard, Otto Kernberg's from Cornell, James Grotstein from Stamford, to name a few.But of course they are all part of the psychobabble industry to you, aren't they.You ask us to stick to what we know best, rather than critique your hero's poetry? You don't appear to impose any restrictions on your statements about psychology and psychiatry. That must be because you think you already KNOW. Right? Wow. Must be comfortable to live in such a fatuous world.

Since you don't appear to know anything about serious empirical research in psychiatry, although I'm sure you think you're a quick study, in the absence of that knowledge you don't appear to be in any position to comment on what we can or cannot know. Borderline personality disorder is now one of the most carefully researched, empirically confirmed diagnoses available to us today. And the possibility for moving backward, historically, to look at what we do know about popular figures and legends, although messy and complicated is not IMPOSSIBLE (Should I drop the caps?) and can be very helpful in popularizing such a disorder to the public. Nor is it unethical to do so.

Among the reasons we believe so confidently that you are only superficially familiar with these fields rests fundamentally on your citation of Szasz, and Laing, for example, not to mention your wild-eyed claim that one cannot really KNOW anything (your emphasis) about the psychology of other people.Szasz and Laing, the most often misunderstood and at the same time most often cited by those pseudo critics, hostile in the extreme to psychiatry and psychology, would never have made such silly claims that we can never KNOW.

You wrote that "the entirely subjective nature of your science," as if there's no such thing as major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and personality disorders, anxiety and panic disorders, posttraumatic stress disorders, identity disorders, to cite a few. These diagnoses are neither subjective nor unscientific. Your dismissal of them as such reveals such ignorance that we choose not to bother you with more complete accounts of the works of brilliant clinical researchers, especially since you appear to have a comic book view of Szasz and Laing as dismissing those serious folks. And we believe any further conversation with you is both pointless and distasteful.P.S. I am not a therapist, my brother Gerald is, a fact you would have known if you had read our book-not to trouble you with a little thing.This was our last response but we are sure that the hero-worshipper within you will compel you once again to respond. ... Read more

Product Description
People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) challenge those close to them with their often bewildering mood shifts and unpredictable behavior. For those people who have relationships with persons with BPD, whether they be relatives, friends, spouses, parents, or children, this book should prove a godsend. It delineates the ways in which borderline individuals (BPs) behavior and communications frustrate and perplex those around them but goes further in articulating specific strategies that those close to the person with Borderline Personality Disorder (nonBPs, as they are termed in this book) can effectively cope with these kinds of behaviors. Larry J. Siever, M.D. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic - Very helpful!
This book was very insightful into the BPD's issues as well as the non-bpd's responses. After reading it I felt a lot more empathy for the BPD, but also felt like the tools were there to cope better with the BPD in someone's life. The book will probably be more helpful to someone with a BPD who is primarily in their life, like a spouse, parent, child, etc. Does offer some help to those who have a periphery BPD in their life, for example a cousin, uncle, friend, son-in-law, etc. I highly recommend it! ... Read more

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34 pages, stapled booklet. (not the 180 page book this goes along with) ... Read more

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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe personality dysfunction thought to affect some 2% of the population. The authors of this volume - Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy - have developed a psychoanalytically oriented treatment for BPD known as mentalization treatment. With randomised controlled trials having shown this method to be effective, this book presents the first account of this treatment for BPD. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good review of the subject and overview of MBT
This book presents a very good overview of the research literature on BPD and is not just a discription of their own form of treatment.The authors give good coverage of research conducted in and outside of the US such as that into cognitive analytic therapy and DBT. MBT is a psychodynamic form of therapy which has some very good research backing.When their first study, an RCT, came out it renewed my interest in psychodynamic based treatments as it showed that psychodynamic therapy could be evidenced based and thus fit in with the current EBM agenda.I would recommend this book to any one who treats or works with BPD patients ... Read more

Product Description
"Everyone expects me to have goals for the future. I'm just struggling to survive each day." - Client with BPD

Such is the struggle of persons with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) who are plagued by chronic urges to harm themselves, overwhelming emotions, impulsivity, and problematic relationships. For these individuals every day, and sometimes, every moment, can be a struggle to get through. The tasks of daily life which most people seem to handle with minimal discomfort, leave the Borderline client feeling confused, overwhelmed, and inadequate. Further, chronic urges to mutilate or kill themselves place them at high risk of hospitalization or even death.

Borderline Personality Disorder: Struggling, Understanding, Succeeding is an easy to understand must read for clinicians of all backgrounds. The title not only describes the process of recovering, but also the process care providers must go through to live with and treat BPD. The struggling client with BPD must learn to understand her behavior in order to change it. Likewise, the struggling clinician must learn to understand the Borderline client before they will be able to provide successful interventions.

Struggling, Understanding, Succeeding describes the struggles facing clients with Borderline Personality Disorder as well as the professionals and loved ones caring for them. Dr. Warner argues that by understanding these individual’s behaviors and changing our negative ways of thinking about them, we can become more satisfied and successful in our work. In down to earth language with practical examples, this book provides an overview of the current knowledge base regarding Borderline Personality Disorder and an introduction to the concepts of Dialectic Behavioral Therapy. Concrete strategies are described for assessing and intervening with clients who self injure along with a list of "Things to Try Instead of Hurting Yourself."

If you don’t have hours to pour over research articles and textbooks, this book will summarize them for you and translate them into real world strategies. ... Read more