Is self disturbance the core of borderline personality disorder? An outcome study of borderline personality factors.

Object: To determine which constellation of clinical features constitutes the core of borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Method: The criterion of endurance was used to identify the constellation of features which are most basic, or core, in borderline personality disorder. Two sets of constellations of DSM-III features were tested, each consisting of three groupings.

The nothing that is something: core dysphoria as the central feature of borderline personality disorder. Implications for treatment.

People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often describe a longstanding depression or dysphoria central to the disorder. The dimension of chronic inner dysphoria is reflected in the DSM criterion of "emptiness" and is demonstrated on self-report measures of depression. In this paper, we report on outcomes for patients with BPD treated with outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy based on the Conversational Model.

A university psychotherapy training program in a psychiatric hospital: 25 years of the conversational model in the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe the development, delivery and experience of a university psychotherapy training program for psychiatry trainees in a public psychiatric hospital, demonstrating that patients with severe borderline personality disorder can be treated successfully with psychodynamic psychotherapy and stressing the need for structured psychodynamic psychotherapy training in psychiatry.

Method: Two of the authors (JH and JS) were part of the first group of eight trainees supervised by Professor Russell Meares and several other experienced psychiatrists.

Results: Ninety trainees have successfully completed the course.

Somatization and stimulus entrapment.

A "vicious circle" hypothesis is put forward for the common kind of somatization which forms the basis of the DSM's "somatization disorder." Two compounding mechanisms are seen to be operative: (1) a failure of higher order inhibitory systems involved in the "medial pain system"; (2) amplification of stimulus intensity produced by the effect of attention. Attentional failure is produced not only by social factors but also by failure of sensory intensity modulation consequent upon (1).

The beneficial effect on family life in treating borderline personality.

The harmful effect of borderline patients on their families is an important but relatively neglected aspect of outcome studies. This study concerns changes in perceived quality of relationships with partners and children of 24 patients suffering Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) after 12 months of treatment with the Conversational Model (CM). They were compared to 21 parents with BPD receiving "Treatment as Usual" (TAU) from their referring clinicians for the same period.

Harm avoidance, self-harm, psychic pain, and the borderline personality: life in a "haunted house".

This article investigates the pattern of temperament for patients with borderline personality disorder and the impact of psychotherapeutic treatment on temperamental variables. A cohort of patients treated in the Westmead Borderline Personality Disorder Psychotherapy research project completed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. All patients had a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition, criteria.

Mother knows best: effects of maternal modelling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance behaviour in toddlers.

The present study was conducted to investigate the influence of parental modelling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance towards novel, fear-relevant stimuli in a sample of 30 toddlers. The toddlers were shown a rubber snake and spider, which were alternately paired with either negative or positive facial expressions by their mothers. Both stimuli were presented again after a 1- and a 10-min delay, while mothers maintained a neutral expression.