Severe Personality Disorders

Bert van Luyn is Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Head of Ambulatory Services for Longterm Psychiatric Disorders, Symfora Group, The Netherlands. Salman Akhtar is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and Supervising and Training Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, USA. John Livesley is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Canada.

• 1. Treatability in severe personality disorders: how far do the science and art of psychotherapy carry us? Michael Stone; 2. The treatment of choice: what method fits whom? John Clarkin; 3. Countertransference: recent developments and technical implications for the treatment of patients with severe personality disorders Otto Kernberg; 4. Beyond management to cure: enhancing the positive dimensions of personality Robert Cloninger; 5. Personality disorders from the perspective of child and adolescent psychiatry Arnold Allertz and Guus van Voorst; 6. Disruptions in the course of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis Salman Akhtar; 7. Managing suicidal crises in patients with severe personality disorders Joel Paris; 8. Borderline personality disorder, day hospitals, and mentalization Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy; 9. Pharmacotherapy of severe personality disorders: a critical review Thomas Rinne and Theo Ingenhoven; 10. Severe cases: management of the refractory borderline patient Bert van Luyn; 11. Dangerous cases: when treatment is not an option Reid Meloy and James Reavis; 12. Stalking of therapists Paul Mullen and Rosemary Purcell; 13. Common elements of effective treatments John Livesley.

Review of the hardback: 'This book covers important aspects of personality disorders management. It starts with treatability, methods of treatment, issues in children and adolescence, managing suicidal crisis, management of severe and dangerous cases and discussion of common elements of effective treatment. … a detailed, thoughtful and comprehensive survey of the available literature on treatment of personality disorders with meticulous attention to conceptual details. The reader explores the essential ingredients of an effective therapeutic approach for these conditions.' Saudi Medical Journal