Borderline Personality Disorder
For Individuals with BPD
Welcome to Section 1 on BPD - Individuals
I
Hate You, Don't Leave Me : Understanding the Borderline
Personality by Jerold J. Kreisman & Hal Straus. This is on of the first
books on BPD written for laymen. It is a VERY useful beginning point
learn about this confusing disorder. The book also introduce the reader
to some of the psychology language (light).
Reader comment: -- "Many people seem to see borderlines as impossible to
deal with, hopeless, and beyond comprehension and human emotion. This
book gives people the chance to connect emotionally with the pain of
borderline personality disorder AND offers hope for change and healing."
Skills
Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder by
Marsha M. Linehan Ph.D. (Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Manual.
Reader comment: -- "I'm a psychology intern and we use this manual for
multiple disorders, not just BPD. The skills, as others have suggested
are essential to living a healthy, happy life, regardless of one's
'problems.' While most modern day psychotherapeutic techniques preach
change, Linehan's work centers on centering. Acceptance balanced with
change. Emotion balanced with logic. It's a wonderful new perspective on
treating psychological disorders. And as an added bonus, in the age of
managed care, it's one of the few treatments rooted in a humanistic
understanding that will be readily reimbursed by HMO's. As both a
therapist and a consumer of psychological literature, this work stands
as one of the most helpful available. Well worth the money. And you can
make copies of the handouts WITHOUT worrying about copyright
infringement because the author has graciously given permission to do
so. Linehan is really an asset to the psychological community."
Cognitive
Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder by
Marsha M. Linehan (This book is a companion to go with the workbook
above.)
Reader comment: -- "As soon as our county mental health clinic applied
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), our re-hospitalizations, crisis
contacts, suicidal behavior and recidivism rates for our DBT patients
went close to ZERO. This is the book I recommend as the start for anyone
wanting to be effective in doing psychotherapy - including
Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, Marriage Family Therapists
and Nurses. It empowers the therapist by giving him/her the skills to
help severely mentally ill and difficult patients - not just ones with
borderline personality disorder. For many, if not most, mental health
programs, people with borderline personality disorder are traditionally
frustrating, maddening, and looked on with disgust by therapists and
medical staff. They are often rejected by staff and treated with anger
because of the lack of adequate treatments for the disorder. Yet this is
one of the most common mental illnesses. And persons with the disorder
repeatedly are hospitalized for suicidal behavior - at large cost to the
counties involved. Or worse, they are rejected for hospitalization and
allowed to continue to be self-destructive. With DBT this is no longer
the case. Therapists who understand DBT are confident and assured when
helping seriously ill, constantly hospitalized patients. Therapist who
don't often are frustrated, and rejecting of them. No other textbook in
therapy is as detailed and well-delineated as this book. It is
applicable to inpatient, outpatient, and emergency room settings. DBT
works effectively in emergencies, with actively suicidal patients, to
reduce the acuity of the situation. It is effective even in short (< 7
day) hospital stays. It takes about ONE YEAR to moderately understand
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It takes about THREE MONTHS of reading
and rereading the book to begin to grasp the concepts described in the
book. This book is very "meaty" despite its slimness. The book has its
own vocabularly (with an eastern philosophy view), which takes the
reader out of the usual psychological jargon, which makes the book
initially difficult to read. This accounts for the initial anger that
readers may have with this book, unless they are aware of eastern
philosophies. The book is NOT psychobabble. Chronic patients with years
of psychotherapy actually are more accepting of DBT because it doesn't
use the psychobabble they are used to and associate with therapeutic
failure. The psychotherapy method described is THE MOST EFFECTIVE method
I have ever found. It is NOT purely cognitive behavioral therapy. It is
very psychodynamic it its point of view. What is interesting is that the
therapists who (I find) naturally do Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
(without knowledge of this form of therapy) are Psychoanalysts who are
well-centered in their own personalities. A difficulty any therapist
will have in performing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, is that they
will have to work on their own personality faults, blind-spots, and
Countertransference, while treating patients. This is a part of DBT.
This is crucial in order to perform DBT. But then, continuing
supervision or on-going therapy of the therapist, is an important part
of being a good therapist. Most therapists already know 80% of the
content of this book. However, this book puts all the facets of the art
of psychotherapy in the best delineated, and detailed manual, I have
found. It is highly recommended."
New
Hope for People with Borderline Personality Disorder: Your
Friendly, Authoritive Guide to the Latest in Traditional and
Complementary Solutions by Neil R. Bockian, Nora Elizabeth Villagran
Reader comment: -- "This book takes a more holistic view of BPD than
other books on the subject. Topics in the book include diet/nutrition
and exercise/spiritual motivation, in addition to the traditional topics
of psychotherapy and conventional treatment of BPD."