Transference focused psychotherapy: Overview and update

• Published in: International journal of psychoanalysis Vol. 89; no. 3; pp. 601 - 620
• Main Authors: Kernberg, Otto F., Yeomans, Frank E., Clarkin, John F., Levy, Kenneth N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Routledge 01.06.2008; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Institute of Psychoanalysis (British); Institute of Psycho-analysis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Behavior; Behavior Therapy - methods; Biological and medical sciences; borderline personality disorder; Borderline Personality Disorder - psychology; Borderline Personality Disorder - therapy; comparative analysis of psychotherapeutic treatments; Empirical Research; Humans; Individual psychotherapy; interpretation; Medical sciences; Models, Psychological; Object Attachment; object relations theory; Patients; Personality Disorders - psychology; Personality Disorders - therapy; Professional-Patient Relations; Psychoanalysis - methods; Psychoanalysis - trends; psychoanalytic psychotherapies; Psychoanalytic Therapy - methods; Psychoanalytic Therapy - trends; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotherapeutic Processes; Psychotherapies. Psychological and clinical counseling; Psychotherapy - methods; Psychotherapy - trends; randomized controlled trials; splitting mechanisms; technical neutrality; Theory; Transference (Psychology); transference analysis; Treatment Outcome; Treatments; Human; Transference countertransference; object relations theory; Psychoanalytic interpretation; Analytical psychotherapy; Borderline; Indication; splitting mechanisms; Controlled therapeutic trial; Review; randomized controlled trials; Personality disorder; psychoanalytic psychotherapies; Treatment; interpretation; transference analysis; borderline personality disorder; Cleavage; Contraindication; Application method; comparative analysis of psychotherapeutic treatments; Comparative study; Objectal relation; technical neutrality
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2008.00046.x
• ISSN: 0020-7578

This paper describes a specific psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients with severe personality disorders, its technical approach and specific research projects establishing empirical evidence supporting its efficacy. This treatment derives from the findings of the Menninger Foundation Psychotherapy Research project, and applies a model of contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory as its theoretical foundation. The paper differentiates this treatment from alternative psychoanalytic approaches, including other types of psychoanalytic psychotherapy as well as standard psychoanalysis, and from three alternative non-analytical treatments prevalent in the treatment of borderline patients, namely, dialectic behavior therapy, supportive psychotherapy based on psychoanalytic theory, and schema focused therapy. It concludes with indications and contraindications to this particular therapeutic approach derived from the clinical experience that evolved in the course of the sequence of research projects leading to the empirical establishment of its efficacy.