Personality disorder used to be a diagnosis of exclusion, a condition deemed 'untreatable'. This situation has been transformed in the past ten years, with a huge expansion of research and clinical interest in personality disorders: what it is like to have a personality disorder, what sort of services are helpful, what treatments work best and what staff need to know. This book provides an expert synthesis of these clinical advances. It covers the nature of personality disorders, assessment, diagnosis and classification, management and a broad range of therapeutic approaches. Written by practitioners with real expertise in the field, the book is equally suitable for psychiatric trainees and more experienced clinicians from the full range of disciplines in mental healthcare. Five chapters have been specially commissioned for this book, while previous versions of the other fifteen chapters have been published in the journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment - many have been extensively updated by the authors.
Part I. The Nature of the Problem: 1. The nature of personality disorder; 2. Differences between psychopathy and other personality disorders: evidence from neuroimaging; 3. Challenges in the treatment of dangerous and severe personality disorder; 4. Are you looking at me? Understanding and managing paranoid personality disorder; 5. Personality disorder in older people: how common is it and what can be done?; 6. Management of common personality disorders in the acute setting; 7. Personality disorder in women; 8. Personality disorder in adolescence; Part II. Management and General Treatment Approaches: 9. Assessment of personality disorder; 10. Diagnosis and classification of personality disorder: difficulties, their resolution and implications for practice; 11. Murmurs of discontent: treatment and treatability of personality disorder; 12. Personality disorder: its impact on staff and the role of supervision; Part III. Specific Treatment Approaches: 13. Treating personality disorder: methods and outcomes; 14. Skills-based therapies for personality disorder; 15. Insight-oriented therapies for personality disorder; 16. Treatment approaches for severe personality disorder; 17. Mindfulness in the psychotherapy of personality disorder; 18. Cognitive analytic therapy for borderline personality disorder; 19. Contemporary therapeutic communities: complex treatment for complex needs; 20. Nidotherapy: making the environment do the therapeutic work.
