Product Description

Description

When Julie becomes so mentally ill she can no longer cope in society, she is put in a psychiatric hospital with the support of her friends. Once inside the hospital, Julie faces some terrible challenges; her main issue is trusting those in authority. She had uncontrollable reactions, such as self harming and suicidal behaviours when something is out of control, but with the help of her friends and a doctor she gradually starts to get these under more control. But the world of a Borderline is never an easy ride, and Julie portrays the tribulations that this diagnosis may cause.

Julie's journey portrays how difficult a patient's role in the hospital is when the staff are met with a talented, yet troubled young individual. How can they cope with Julie's issues without belittling her or making her feel worse?

This book will work to sympathise with those who have had similar experiences in hospital and were unable to vent out their problems. This book will also thrive is teaching mental health staff what is perhaps going through a patient's mind. This book challenges staff to look at their approach and language in the way that they treat patients, particularly those with Borderline Personality Disorder. ... Read more

Product Description
Examine personality psychopathology from diverse perspectives and explore multiple research and treatment approaches with The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders. Capture the multifaceted range of nonpathological human behavior and develop a judicious understanding of the extremes of behavior that are called personality disorders.

No other textbook today matches the clinically useful scope and relevance of Textbook of Personality Disorders. Its comprehensive coverage of theory, research, and treatment of personality disorders, incorporating illustrative case examples to enhance understanding, reflects the work of more than 70 expert contributors who review the latest theories, research findings, and clinical expertise in the increasingly complex field of personality disorders.

The deeply informative Textbook of Personality Disorders is organized into six main sections:

• Basic concepts—Summarizes definitions and classifications of personality disorders, building on broader international concepts and theories of psychopathology and including categorical and dimensional models of personality disorders
• Clinical evaluation—Discusses manifestations, problems in differential diagnosis, and patterns of comorbidity; the most widely used interviews and self-administered questionnaires; and the course and outcome of personality disorders.
• Etiology—Includes an integrative perspective (personality disorders, personality traits, and temperament); epidemiology (one in ten people has a personality disorder) and genetics; neurobiology; antecedents of personality disorders in children and adolescents; attachment theory and mentalization therapy in borderline personality disorder; and the complex and variable interface between personality disorders and sociocultural factors
• Treatment—Covers levels of care and the full range of therapies, from psychoanalysis to pharmacotherapy; includes detailed information on schema therapy, dialectical behavior therapy (specifically developed for self-injuring/suicidal patients with borderline personality disorder), interpersonal therapy, dynamically-informed supportive psychotherapy, group treatment, family therapy, psychoeducation, the therapeutic alliance, boundary issues, and collaborative treatment
• Special problems and populations—Addresses suicide, substance abuse, violence, dissociative states, defensive functioning, gender and cross-cultural issues, and patients in correctional and medical settings
• New developments and future directions—Offers perspectives on brain imaging and translational research and asserts that the closer working relationship between clinical psychiatrists and behavioral neuroscientists—with neuroimaging techniques as the common ground—will result in more promising models to enhance our understanding of the neuroscience and molecular biology of personality disorders

Offering both a wealth of practical information that clinicians can use right away in their daily practice and an up-to-date review of empirical research, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders is the definitive reference and clinical guide not only for seasoned clinicians but also for psychiatry residents, psychology interns and graduate students, and social work, medical, and nursing students studying personality disorders, abnormal psychology, and psychopathology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An authoritative review, and a very precious Compendium.
Personality traits, styles, and disorders are a very complex domain in the Behavioral Sciences. Personality Disorders are currently still catalogued as Axis II disorders in the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000).

Soon we will be blessed by the 5th edition of the DSM. Personality disorders are planned to be one of the hottest topic in the new edition. Diagnoses will change. Criteria will be added (and others discontinued or grouped). Yet, as long as the new edition of the DSM-V is in limbo, I suggest to buy this book. It is very thorough. It offers conceptualizations offered by a number of theoretical backgrounds, included neurobiology and genetics. This area is one of the most complex in Psychiatry. This book is a Must-Have for those who are interested in the know-how and treatment of personality maladaptive behaviors. I must thank the editors. It helped me clean some shelves of many other Personality Disorders books. I love books and enjoy looking at heavily filled shelves in my library. Yet, this masterwork collects the authoritative work of leading experts, scientists, researchers, and opinion-makers. Simply said, it is high-tech know-how. Literature in Psychiatry keeps on repeating itself: This manual's greatest quality is the ability to filter what has been empirically supported compared to the more esotheric key of interpretations of deeply embedded and pernicious illnesess. ... Read more

Product Description
"AM I LOSING MY MIND?"

People with Borderline Personality Disorderexperience such violent and frightening mood swingsthat they often fear for their sanity. They can beeuphoric one moment, despairing and depressed thenext. There are an estimated 10 million sufferersof BPD living in America today -- each displayingremarkably similar symptoms:

Product Description
This revised edition of the classic work on the hysterical personality begins with a new chapter, introducing the core characteristics of the hysterical personality disorder and providing a framework for the reader that changes and is enlarged in each successive chapter. The second chapter deals with the fundamental diagnostic and formulative issues. The third considers the development of the disorder in terms of childhood and adolescent antecedents. Basic treatment principles are presented in the fourth chapter, and the change process in reschematizing psychological treatment is addressed in the fifth. This last chapter presents a case in detail, indicating development of schemas of self and others; showing how core aspects of personality may change as a consequence of new forms of relationships and new uses of conscious thought. The initial phase of treatment in an average treatable case of hysterical personality is often one that is an urgent appeal for attention. This phase is followed quickly, once a therapeutic attachment is established, by a period of regression, in which unresolved conflicts and childhood fixations are manifested within the therapeutic relationship itself.Ideally, this phase overlaps with a period of working through, the therapeutic antidote to the multiply determined nature of the patient's state at onset of treatment. Finally, termination encompasses the difficult task of separation, itself a phase of important work on self-development for the hysterical personality. The approach here is that of brief or extended treatment guided by psychoanalytic theory, using the basic ground rules of psychodynamic psychotherapy. The main patient type under consideration is the hysterical personality who has developed a separate, although conflicted, self-representation and who has advanced capacity for relationship. This book is a resource for every mental health clinician. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mental illness in everyday life
This scholarly book tackles a theme that mass market books can only dance around - how children grow up in families where one or more of the parents have an identifiable mental illness such as neurosis which results inbizzare (although often subtle) actions, and unpredictable andinappropriate behavior around the kids.

The basic theme of this book isthe way that familys and child development can produce life-long problemswith relationships (neurosis) and aggression (personality disorder).Although it acknowledges the extreme difficulty of proving this, it laysout a scholarly, thorough, and compelling case. It touches on a series ofintertwined developmental issues, which mass market books would have dealtwith separately. This prevents mass market readers from the seeing howthese problems are related. This includes issues of promiscuity, what otherbooks would call "low self esteem," substance abuse, genderconfusion, repeated destructive relationships, sadism, compulsive sexualbehavior, asexual behavior, feminine role-playing in women, fakehyper-masculine behavior in men, and the way that all these defense aremobilized to sabotage relationships and counseling. Although sex plays arole in many of these problems, there is nothing salacious about this book.The tone is not dry, but sometimes amusingly old-fashioned.

There is alsoa thorough examination of role of adults that act out their repressedhostilities through their children. And the explanation of how adultsencourage to children to act out the adults' repressed sexual desires isdownright eerie, but seems right on target in an era where so many adultsseem obsessed with pushing inappropriate clothes, movies, books on verysmall children. It also describes cases where small children show extremelydisturbing flirtatious and sexual behavior, urged on by their parents (whohave no idea).

This book is a series of essays. The quality of eachchapter is uniformly excellent. The writers have a Freudian perspective,but the book never bogs down in jargon. Its level of difficulty isappropriate for the interested laymen, although it would be clearly beyondthe level of a Psych 101 textbook. Although somewhat technical, this ismeat & potatoes psychology you can really get your teeth into. Thewriting is uniformly good, and repeated readings provide fresh and powerfulinsights into self-destructive behavior we see every day. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Reviews by Peers of 'Difficult Personalities
Difficult Personalities Reviews


"Concise, well-organized advice that will help readers identify and deal more effectively with the troublesome people in their lives."
--ALBERT BERNSTEIN, PHD, author of Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry, Dinosaur Brains: Dealing with All Those Impossible People at Work, and Am I the Only Sane One Working Here?

"As a professional in the field of psychology, I'm impressed with Difficult Personalities' content and useful information. It's easy to read--both a good reference book and practical for anyone."
--MARTHA MANNING, PHD, author of Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface


USA Publishers Weekly: Jan 2010

Difficult Personalities: A Practical Guide to Managing the Hurtful Behavior of Others (and Maybe Your Own) Helen McGrath and Hazel Edwards, Experiment (PGW, dist.), $14.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-61519-013-3. What do you get when a clinical psychologist (McGrath) and an experienced author of adult and children's literature (Edwards) team up to write a handbook for dealing with troublesome people at work or in one's personal life? You get a no-frills resource that is both easy to understand and highly informative. As with many such manuals, it's not necessary to read cover to cover (especially when the book's only shortcoming is its slightly repetitive tips and strategies) but, rather, to read the chapter about whichever personality causes stress in your life, from the anxious to the passive-aggressive, bullies, and narcissists. Whether the problem person is a chronic complainer, a fount of insults, or a perpetual martyr, you are guaranteed to find in-depth analysis, including what they do, why they do it, and strategies to help cope with that person in a positive, healthy way. The authors also have advice for people who recognize bothersome traits in themselves. McGrath and Edwards have avoided scientific jargon and created a handbook people can put to use immediately. There's nothing difficult about this book, except for the subject it gracefully explicates

... Read more

Product Description
A supplementary text for undergraduate courses in personality and abnormal psychology, providing a systematic introduction to personality theory and personality disorders. Focus is on disorders new to DSM-III. Case studies, summary charts and review questions highlight important concepts. ... Read more

Product Description
Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia. Text of current therapeutic issues in multiple personality disorder, for clinical psychiatrists. Part 1 is a festschrift to Cornelia B. Wilbur, psychiatrist portrayed in the book and movie entitled Sybil. 22 U.S. contributors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent for health providers and caregivers
Excellenct source of information on the basic principles in conducting the psychotherapy of MPD/DID and the tranference and countertransference in the overall treatment of MPD/DID. For both health providers and caregivers.

Issues of Multiple Posttraumatic and the clinical approaches to the Intergration of Personalities is really informative and helpful.

Tactical integrationist of and the treatment of DID/MPD and the aids to the treatment of on a General Psyciatric Unit are a must read for providers and caregivers alike.

Section 3 deals with the issue of Dissociation within the Inner city, Deinstitutionlization of patients with chronic MPD/DID and the use of Amtyal interviews in the treatment of the exceptionally complex caes of MPD/DID. The role of transional objects and phenomena in patients with MPD/DID, Play therapy with minors with MPD/DID, and Ego state therapy with patients and the use of sand trays in the beginning stages of treatment.

The last section is about MPD/DID consulation in Public Psychiatric care, Eating disorders in survivors of Multimodal childhood abuse, be it physical or mental/emotional. Eating disorders in the MPD/DID patient and finally an overall history of MPD/DID and how the treatment has evolved and matured. ... Read more

Product Description
An abridged version of The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders, this volume presents the essentials of this topic and is updated with the recent growth of knowledge in the neurosciences and the new technologies being used to tackle the treatment of complex psychiatric disorders. In Essentials of Personality Disorders, 35 international authorities all contributors to the parent text offer a balance of theory, research, and treatment geared toward ready application in a busy practice. This volume begins with a review of our evolving understanding of personality disorders and the major theories that have influenced thinking about their nature. A succinct guide to clinical evaluation follows, presenting the defining features of DSM-IV-TR personality disorders, complementary approaches to clinical assessment, patterns of Axis I and Axis II disorder comorbidity, and clinical courses and outcomes. Chapters on etiology reflect the most recent data on epidemiology, progress in understanding underlying neurobiology, a developmental perspective on recognizing early patterns of behavior suggestive of future disorders, and the relevance of childhood experiences to the development of maladaptive personality traits. Eleven chapters on treatment then offer guidelines for determining the appropriate intensity of treatment for patients, followed by a presentation of therapeutic options and considerations ranging from psychoanalysis and group treatment to boundary issues and collaborative treatment. ... Read more

Product Description
Outwardly charming, confident, and successful individuals may in fact be caught in a knot of self-destructive behavior. This book looks at case histories and delineates appropriate treatments for each disorder--offering a real hope for cure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Read this book if you are BPD
This is an excellent book. It helped me to understand my BPD behavior much better, and also to understand how I got that way. I wish I had been diagnosed twenty years ago. I was misdiagnosed with depression, bipolar, panic, etc. Knowing that I did not really fit those categories, I stopped medication for several years. I coped by using nutrition and solitude. But as soon as I was around people, my behavior would come out again. That was the key that no doctor ever looked at: I'm only crazy when there is someone there. Someone to cling to, manipulate, and feel abandoned by or attacked by or criticized by. My illness is a lot like the three-year-old who stops their tantrum when there is no one listening or watching. Now, with a diagnosis and study, I can use medication, nutrition, and counseling to cope with this illness and deal with people much more calmly and sanely. Sorry, I have not said much about the book. Well, this is the book that explained the illness better than anything else I read on the topic.

Damaged Book
Book received book damaged and seller would not communicate to return it.Working through Chase to resolve this issue.

Great information; not light reading
I'm about half way through the book now. It's definitely not light reading, and I'm probably going to have to read it another couple of times to really get it. But the information it contains seems to be both profound and very useful/helpful. I definitely recommend it.

the best book I've read on psychiatry
Masterson is extremely insightful about two common, and until recently considered untreatable, personality disorders: borderline spectrum and narcissism. He helps the reader to understand the etiology of these disorders and how both involve the creation of a false self. What I liked most about this book is that he doesn't treat people with these disorders as if they're an alien species ("crazy people"), while the rest of us are "normal". We all have a little borderline or narcissism in us. This is a compassionate and intelligent book.

The Real Deal
I have read a good deal of Winnicott and Bollas writing about the true self, and it has been enlightening and informative, yet somewhat nebulous.Without realizing it, this probably relates to the fact that coherent theories of the Self are sketchy and incomplete.Masterson masterfully reviews these theories, the confusion between ego and self and "I", then offers a very clear conceptualization of the self, with focus on the Real Self.Far apart from the romantic or mystical connotations one might have, Masterson addresses the components and development of the Real Self, he defines it as such to highlight the role of the Real Self in dealing with reality, and describes a therapeutic technique - and the crucial timing of its use - as a means of supporting self-initiation, especially with borderline and narcissistic personalities.This is a must read for professionals working from a psychodynamic and/or object relations framework.It should have some value for the lay person, although it is not designed as such.A beneficial surprise is Masterson's look at the real self in relationship to creativity - creativity in living and artisitic creativity, as well as a brief review of the fate of the Real Self in different cultures. ... Read more

Product Description

Borderline Personality Disorderis the classic guide to diagnosis and treatment of borderline personality disorder. It presents a broad and balanced approach to clinical problems that are central to the practices of all mental health professionals.

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Book
Borderline Personality Disorder is a complicated, devastating disorder. It is much more common than is realized.

This is an outstanding book for friends, relatives and therapists.

Unfortunately the above persons are frequently devastated about this person's rages, sarcasm & destructive behavior.

Marriages and friendships are ruined.

Essential reading

an excellent look into the disorder
Even though John G. Gunderson's book Borderline Personality Disorder is written about borderlines, and not to them, it offers an excellent look into the disorder for borderlines, acquaintances of borderlines, and people who work with borderlines. For borderlines, it provides a unique voyeuristic look into Gunderson's frank discussion of the borderline disorder, and it's hostages. Dr. Gunderson begins by naming, defining and subdividing the characteristic criteria and shows how they are displayed by the borderline patient.He offers case examples to support his statements. He details such effects as self destructiveness, aggression, anger, validation, splitting, transferences, psychotic regression, depression, devaluation, dissociation, hospitalization, suicide, pharmacotherapy, therapy and therapist attributes.He has one entire chapter devoted to the borderline name called The Term Borderline. Each chapter is summarized and an index avails the reader quick access to particular topics.At no time does the borderline reader need to fear feeling belittled or embarrassed reading this material.Dr. Gunderson describes the borderline patient with respect and understanding throughtout all the book's 204 pages. ... Read more

Product Description
Determining the amenability of personality disorders to psychotherapy -- a patient's capacity to benefit from verbal approaches to treatment -- is important in helping clinicians determine the treatability of cases. Michael Stone here shares the factors he has observed over long years of practice that can help practitioners evaluate patients, stressing the amenability of the various disorders to amelioration. By focusing on which patients are likely to respond well to therapeutic intervention and which will prove most resistive, his book will help therapists determine with what kinds of patients they will most likely succeed and with which ones failure is almost a certainty.

Stone establishes the attributes that affect this amenability -- such as the capacity for self-reflection, motivation, and life circumstances's guidelines for evaluating patients, then describes borderline and other personality-disordered patients with varying levels of amenability, from high to low. This coverage progresses from patients belonging to the DSM "anxious cluster," along with the depressive-masochistic character and the hysteric character, to patients who demonstrate an intermediate level of amenability to psychotherapy. He introduces the interrelationship between borderline personality disorder and dissociative disorders and discusses treatability among certain patients in Clusters "A" and "C," as well as others with narcissistic, histrionic, depressive disorders. Final chapters address the most severe aberrations of personality and the limitations they impose on the efficacy of therapy. Personality-Disordered Patients is filled with practical, clinically focused information. This guideline structured book:

• Covers all personality disorders-including ones not addressed in the latest DSM such as sadistic, depressive, hypomanic, and irritable-explosive
• Identifies both attributes necessary for treatability and factors associated with low treatability
• Pays particular attention to borderline disorders, which represent the most discussed conditions and are among the most challenging to psychotherapists
• Reviews personality traits whose presence, if intense-even if unaccompanied by a definable personality disorder-creates severe problems for psychotherapy

Customer Reviews (11)

A comment for Karen from the author
Dear Karen, as the author of the book A God Called Father, I appreciate your open and honest personal response to my book. At the same time, I felt you were judging my healing process and implying that my experience lacked integrity. The truth is, the integration of my splits took more or less two years. Maybe that doesn't happen often, but that is exactly what happened in my case. True, I was in therapy for nearly three years BEFORE I realized that I had any splits, spent two years integrating most of the trauma and the personalities and then another 5 years in therapy dealing with the residual impact. So I was indeed in therapy for about ten years. I left both my children out of the book (both were young adults when I was writing) out of respect for them and a desire to allow them to define their own experience. Indeed I had a lot of guilt in relation to my kids and eventually had to deal with that but God brought full and complete healing in those relationships, too. Maybe that seems "unrealistic" to you. Maybe it is unrealistic FOR you. But I believe it is possible. I KNOW it is because I experienced it. I did not end the book because I wanted to get it published. The truth is, I never expected it to get published. A friend gave it to a publisher in Holland and when they contacted me for publication, I had to pray hard about whether or not it was something I really wanted to do. I finished the book because I felt it said what I wanted to say at the time. Perhaps I'll write another book one day with more of my story which encompasses so much more than just the fact that I once had DID. I live in Costa Rica now and work with children who are abused, who are being commercially exploited, who need love and hope and vision for a brighter tomorrow. Actually, I guess that's why I wrote my book in the first place. To give women who have suffered like I did love and hope and a vision for a brighter tomorrow and this is what I wish for you, too, Karen. Warmly, Judith Machree

Too preachy.Unrealistic.
I also am a christian with DID.I certainly understand where she is coming from and the struggles involved.This is a highly individualized condition where no two cases are alike.There are however some consistencies in most people with DID.The average time spent in therapy is between 8 and 10 years.Her book only spans 2 years in which she discovered, worked with, and integrated most of her splits.This is almost unheard of.She ended the book very ubruptly because she wanted to get it published, not because she was at a point of healthy living.She was open and honest about her marriage and relationship with her therapist, but I kept wondering about her kids.She stated that she had two children but in all her family stories, they were never mentioned.DID effects all relationships.Why leave such a vital part of her life out?The struggles and guilt of what this does to a mother is horrific.That is what other's with DID would have related to and wanted to hear.Finally, her constant preaching, praying, and bringing her parts "into relationship with Jesus" made healing seem like a formula.She almost implied that healing and integration depends on them becoming christian.I don't buy it!!

There are better books to read on the subject.

Worth re-reading
Just as encouraging to read the second time around as it was the first. I recommend it for anyone diagnosed with DID or living with someone with DID. Especially if you have religious questions like "what about God in this whole picture ? Where was He, where is He, and does He even care?"

One of the best testimonials I've ever read
This book is well written, honestly and accurately written, with true, practical answers.It gives the only answer to a person's needs, God, as He reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, but in a way that is easily grasped by a person who has gone through what she has gone through.

Help and hope for the hurting
Even though I found this book hard to read at times because of the author's struggle -- presented in such intimate detail -- I found a thread of hope that compelled me to continue. This is a beautifully written book, real literature, that explores the human spirit's capacity for transformation in the face of tragic and overwhelming human depravity. As a victim of incest myself, I found it very encouraging. I recommend it! ... Read more

Product Description
A complete therapist guide for borderline personality disorder. Few psychological problems carry the negative connotation accompanying borderline personality disorder (BPD). The most common element of BPD is an exquisite sensitivity to life events that may manifest in periodic loss of control. This loss of control may lead to actions that can be damaging to oneself and others. The authors have this volume to help and the therapists of people with BPD take control of this disorder. Filled with practical strategies and the research and theory behind them, this book provides clinicians with the necessary tools for working with this innovative program. ... Read more

Product Description
A deeply personal account of one woman's battle with multiple-personality disorder describes the childhood horrors and abuse at the hands of her father that led to a fragmentation into three separate entities and discusses her long battle to overcome the problem. Original." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

An Inside View of Multiple Personality Disorder
Even today, Multiple Personality Disorder(MPD) challenges psychologists and health care practitioners.One common denominator MPD patients seem to share is childhood trauma, usually sexual and/or physical abuse.Children use the natural human ability to "disassociate" when the pain or trauma becomes more than they can bear.After the body has been hurt, the child may no longer feel the pain because the mind has found "a safer place to be."In MPD "alters" or "other personalities" emerge; they may be male or female, child or adult, extrovert or introvert. This book is the journey of Jean Darby Cline from childhood abuse at the hands of her father, verbal abuse in her first marriage, and diagnosis as a "multiple" to therapy and healing with the help of Jack M. Reiter, M.D.,P.S.

As the book will reveal, the healing process can be as painful as the childhood abuse.During therapy, the patient often relives the memories and pain of the abuse.Often MPD patients are not aware, prior to therapy, of the multiples living inside them.They may realize there is a problem but not know exactly what the problem is.Jean Darby Cline exposes her feelings, fears and pain, and gives the reader a true account and inside view of what it is like to live with MPD.In her case, she had three alters, but it is not uncommon for patients to have many, many more as was the case in the book, "Sybil."

If you want to learn more on MPD, I would highly recommend "Silencing the Voices" as well as, "First Person Plural" by Cameron West(see my review.)Both are excellent books on the subject.

A KALEIDOSCOPE
Jean Cline's recounting of her horrific experiences with her twisted father took courage.She does not back away from her experiences in retelling them in this book; she confronts them and by setting an example encourages others to do likewise.

Jean Cline developed three distinct personalities to cope with her overwhelming life conditions.Like most persons with DID/MPD, she was highly creative, artistically talented and suffered horrendous abusive childhood experiences.She gives a fresh voice to this now recognized condition and it is through her perseverance that she is able to "integrate" her "alters" and become a core.She is Gestalt; the whole person is greater than the sum of her parts (alters).Like a shifting kaleidoscope, Jean Cline shifts into various patterns of behavior and appearances.Like a kaleidoscope, at no time is she ever the same.Once integrated, she is able to make peace with herself.

highly informative
In doing research about Dissociative Identity Disorder I was referred to this book. It clarified so many things about the disorder, how it works, how if affects everyone from the patient to the family and how it can becured. I highly recommend this book! It's a wonderful story of support andrecovery and also gives a graphic depiction into the mind/life of anabuser; through her father's actions. Jean has done a good job of relayingher experiences to the world.

A very good look into the mind of a multiple.
As the spouse of a multiple I found this book to be very informative in the area of how the multiple personalities process in their mind the abuse they are put through.I noted many similarities from my own observations. One of my wife's personalities wants to read the book but I've cautionedher about the potential triggering portions but also stated that she mightfind the description of the road to integration to be encouraging. Congradulations to the author.I have an understanding of the strength ittook to write this book.

EXCELLENT
Even though I don't have multiple personality I could relate with many parts of this book.I thought it was wonderfully written and gave me things to think about in my abuse recovery.Many thanks to those who havethe courage to step out and share their lives in order to help others. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Good Book But Could Be Better
While I definitely don't doubt that people who have Borderline Personality Disorder or those who know someone who does will get something out of this book, I just found it a bit hard to follow at times. The author, in true Borderline fashion, does jump around from topic to topic quite often and from emotion to emotion. While I did appreciate the honesty of the book, it made it a bit hard to really get absorbed in the topic because the topic was always changing - and always done quickly.

This book is written more in a "lyrical" manner than as a prose. If I were to describe it, I'd call it poetic prose. There are random words in different fonts, different text spacing and alignment, and bolding for the emotions she felt strongly. All of that comes together to make a neat, "frenzied" effect like the author was going for. It definitely makes the book stand out among other psychology books.

However, where I really believe this book fell short was in the plot and story. Yes, it's a Memoir, and of course, I respect that and wouldn't expect the author to fib on details, but at the same time, I wish she had included more of those details. The book starts off with a short explanation of her childhood, but then we jump into her adult life. In her adult life where we spend most of the book, we spend most of that time learning about the relationship between the author and her lesbian (married to another woman) lover. This brings the author on many ups and downs and really helps exemplify what someone with Borderline Personality Disorder feels in a relationship/about attachment. However, that's about where the good example stops.

I wish the author would have included anything about how her mental condition affected her work, her regular day-to-day activities, or basically anything just aside from her relationship with this one woman. (And a couple people after the woman.) It was an amazing insight into her relationship, but I feel like Borderline Personality Disorder is about more than just the relationship. The last part where it fell short is really when it came to treatment. We get to read about the author's reaction to her therapist telling her she has BPD, but we don't get much afterwards. We don't get to learn about the treatment or her therapy to help her become stable. Instead, the start of a new chapter is when she's married to another woman and stable.

It's not a bad book though - it just didn't quite meet my expectations of really learning what it's like to live with BPD. The book took me about two hours to finish (but I'm a fast reader), but it's an easy read, and while it didn't hook me like other books tend to, it still was an interesting insight into someone with BPD. If you are interested in reading about that insight, I'd recommend the book.

A Loop of Feelings
You may not know you have a friend or co-worker with Borderline Personality Disorder; you only know that person is difficult, obnoxious, odd.Maybe you have it yourself and wonder why you feel lonely and empty constantly.Maybe you are BPD diagnosed.Maybe you are simply interested in psychological issues. In "Girl in Need of a Tourniquet," Merri Lisa Johnson opens her heart and head to give others a look into both the science and the sociology of the BPD patient.

The book is odd in organization with poetry, song lyrics, charts, scientific quotations, and personal anecdotes somewhat randomly accrued.Each one helps to explain why Johnson was once "a girl in need of a tourniquet." (title from a song lyric) One psychologist said that a Borderline has no emotional skin, and therefore, when emotion is felt, usually rage, the rage will continue until the patient basically bleeds out.

The book recounts Merri's disastrous love affairs with the wrong men and the wrong women.It explains her need to be perfect. She sets a goal to become "the perfect BPD patient,"- an in-joke. BPD patients are notoriously difficult patients due to their incessant and unreasonable demands for attention.

Johnson does not spend a lot of time with finding her parents at fault though she lived a chaotic childhood. She does use her knowledge and research to show the effects of a child's attachment disorders based on that chaotic childhood where the biggest fear is abandonment.The wounded child never overcomes that primal fear, that lack of security.

Johnson luckily found love in her spouse, Stace. She tries to help her sisters, and through these surviving loves, she begins to save herself from self-destruction.She began to face the challenge of learning to live beyond her BPD through acknowledging that she is not perfect. A number of chapters assess her sexuality.

This is not a fully clinical study of BPD, but it is a guide into the mind of someone who has spent her life trying to understand why her rages and tantrums threaten to extinguish her lifethrough drugs, alcohol, and cutting."I Hate You, Don't Leave Me" is quoted often. If you know someone with BPD or suspect it in yourself, this is a prescriptive book for borderlines.

"Girl in Need of a Tourniquet" matches "Girl, Interrupted" as an excellent guide into the mind of the borderline.

A Brilliant and Seminal Offering to Anyone Interested in or Effected by Borderline Personality
In what is an exremely creative and uniquely structured memoir Merri Lisa Johnson offers her readers a window into her experience with Borderline Personality. She educates, tells her story, and challenges readers to re-examine their thinking about Borderline Personality Disorder.

A very courageous and brilliant book with a very artistic presentation.

I would encourage anyone interested in Borderline Personality Disorder or who has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, knows of loves someone who has BPD, or is someone who works in the mental health field to read this most intelligent, unique, and really one-of-a-kind memoir.

You can listen to the author speak about her experience and her memoir in an interview I did with her on blogtalkradio at [...]

As you listen to Merri Lisa Johnson speak and read execerpts from her memoir you will, no doubt, decide that this a book worth reading.

Intense, unique.... in need of a sequel .
If you want an intelligent, keen, ornate, and compelling, wonderfully disconcerting story about strands of life untangled by the author through creative and melodic prose- This is the book for you!
But, if you want a straight memoir, the kind that is comfortable, written by Donald Trump or the latest one hit wonder's ghost writers- this isn't the book you want. If you want to know more about the clinical intricacies of borderline personality disorder- this isn't the book you want.
With this memoir, the reader gets a window into a mind full of prisms that refract, one-way glass, and mirrors that reflect before they shatter. It is an amazing book, a fantastic read. I especially enjoyed the variety of other "sourced" material. The only critique I could offer, and it is so minor as to be negligible (not to mention that I am certainly not qualified to critique a personal creative decision), I would have changed the word "of" in the title to the word "with." I can't wait to see what comes next from the mind of this author. I hope it is equally exciting, disquieting, troubling, and true.

Overall disappointing
Starts strong, and ends too soon, with over 100 pages of a lesbian affair (the same one) in the middle.And if you're the type who's all "woohoo lesbians!!!", let me assure you that it's not as hot as it sounds, in fact, it just gets downright tedious and you start wondering why this is marketed as a memoir of BPD when it's really a memoir of a lesbian affair that lasts forever, bookended by childhood and recovery from BPD without really getting into the recovery. Written lyrically, so if you're used to traditional books, it's hard to follow.In fact, if you have any form of ADHD, it's almost impossible to follow.Quotes from other sources are used as clarification points or even straight up points--in fact so many quotes that I wonder if they outnumber her actual words.It's not a memoir of BPD, it's a memoir of an affair that's filled with she loves me/she loves me not drama.Just because a writer has BPD doesn't mean that everything they write is a BPD memoir.Too bad, because my interest was really piqued by her two BPD sisters, who make a colorful and well-written appearance in the end.Truthfully, as much as her friend with a similar name is horrified at a review like this being written about this book, I'm horrified that a book like this will be used as a source of comparison among the loved ones of people who have BPD as those loved ones try to research what BPD is all about once they learn a family member has it.Those people who don't have BPD (and even those who do) would be better off reading I Hate You/Don't Leave Me, even as boring and dry as that book is.

Nothing personal against the author, but if I had written it, I probably would have pushed through a few more drafts in order to have more clarification where needed and a more balanced manuscript.(I mean, if you're living with BPD your whole life, you will find more examples where it reared its ugly head besides just one affair, and it's present in more places in your life than just your love life.) I have to say, I'm surprised at all the 5 star reviews this has.I did rewrite this review to make myself sound a little bit more intelligent than the last version of this review was, but I was kind of peeved that I paid $15 for what this turned out to be.I rather liked the cover art and flipping through it definitely made it look promising (really, that lyrical style does jump out at you), but I was really, really disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
Praise for the first edition. . .

"This book should be read by everyone who wishes to reclaim the lost land of personality theory and personality disorders (it's so good that I was tempted to say read by anyone who has a personality). This book can be applauded as a companion volume to DSM-III. . . Then, too, it can be appreciated for its thorough and scholarly style." —Journal of Personality Assessment

". . .an impressive effort to bring together the clinical literature on personality disorders . . .

A very useful book. . . —Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

". . .an important source for clinicians and researchers seeking a more comprehensive understanding of these major clinical entities . . . Exhaustively documented and yet written and presented in a clear and simple way, this work is among the most thorough and up-to-date texts in the field and will be particularly valuable for students being introduced to psychiatric diagnosis." —Library Journal

". . .an excellent descriptive book . . .its strength lies in the reality of its case-work material. A book for practitioners. . . —British Journal of Psychiatry

"Dr. Millon's book is scholarly, comprehensive, well organized, and gracefully written. . . .Millon is equally adept at critically and encyclopedically summarizing the psychoanalytic, constitutional, temperamental, behavioral, phenomenologic, interpersonal, and social learning theories of personality development and disorder. . . .This is by far the best available text on personality disorders and will be of great interest to clinicians and researchers alike." —American Journal of Psychiatry

"The book contains a great deal of information on topics about which DSM-III is either carefully guarded or silent. It can be appreciated as representing the point of view of one highly respected dean of personality and psychopathology. . . .one joins Millon in a serious consideration of how each personality disorder developed, what it is like intraphysically and psychodynamically, the manifold ways in which it can express itself, all the complicated other disorders with which it may combine, and the richness of prognostic possibilities." —Contemporary Psychology

Disorders of Personality: DSM-IVTM and Beyond is the fully revised Second Edition of Theodore Millon's landmark work on personality disorders. Indeed, Dr. Millon has been universally recognized as a pioneer and leading authority in this rapidly evolving field. As one of the founders of the Journal of Personality Disorders, a prime organizer of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders, and a full member of the DSM-IVTM, Axis II Work Group, he has played a dominant role in shaping the character of this extraordinarily challenging area of psychological study.

In this new edition, practitioners, researchers, teachers, and students will find the same clarity of insight that made the previous edition the standard text on personality disorders. Like its predecessor, the Second Edition guides the reader through the special complexities of this group of disorders and aids clinicians in the difficult work of diagnosis. It serves as an indispensable companion volume to DSM-IVTM, especially in the light of advances that have transformed personality disorders from an area of marginal relevance in diagnostic practice to one that is now central to the comprehensive multiaxial format. Major revisions and an almost doubling in length make this book more valuable than ever before:

• A revised theoretical framework—from a learning theory-biosocial framework to a more evolutionary model that includes constructs applicable to phylogenesis and human adaptive styles
• An expansion of the 15 basic personality prototypes into personality disorder subcategories, resulting in over 60 additional adult subtypes
• An enlarged review of historical and contemporary thinking on personality disorders that makes this an invaluable single sourcebook for evaluating various theories
• A substantial expansion of the "Clinical Picture" section of each chapter now incorporates eight realms of patient data, and therefore facilitates the selection of modalities of therapeutic intervention

Comprehensive reviews of the newer personality prototypes, such as avoidant, narcissistic, borderline, schizotypal, depressive, sadistic, and masochistic

• Detailed discussion of frequent Comor-bid Axis I and Axis II diagnoses—a feature especially useful to those in managed care practices
• An instructive discussion of childhood personality disorders, a subject frequently ignored in the literature
• Major new chapters on personality assessment and personality therapy, including an up-to-date review of available instruments
• Expanded and detailed discussion of short-term, focused therapy

Comprehensive, authoritative, and superbly organized, Disorders of Personality: DSM-IVTM and Beyond is an absolutely essential resource for psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and social workers, teachers, students, researchers, and all others who seek greater understanding of the complex web of human personality disorders. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Outstanding!
The book is great, and a "must have" for those who seek a better understanding of personality and its disorders.
The authors not only provide the reader with the know-how, but also an enthralling overview of the history of each personality disorder. By going back to some of the old case studies, the authors did allow me to notice how personality disorders have evolved in the centuries. However, I have also learned that many of the signs of each cluster of PPDD were already described in ancient history.
Apart these cultural connotations, the book is a very helpful hint for those working with patients suffering from obstinate
and "hard-to-treat" personality disorders.
Great book, worth each penny paid.

One man's personality disorder . . .
. . . is another man's path to riches, professional prestige, and social control.

If you want to know about the latest fads and superstitions in America's favorite quackery, then this is a great source. You'll miss out on a few things, such as how psychiatrists had epileptics imprisoned in "colonies" just a few decades ago. Epilepsy was, we were informed by Harvard psychiatrists, proof of pathological criminality. You will also not read about how homosexuals, after long being persecuted by psychiatrists (electroconvulsive therapy, insulin schock, lobotomy, etc.) were suddenly declared well, and about how people who dislike homosexuals then were afflicted with a "mental illness" called "homophobia." You won't learn how it is that psychiatrists "knew" that people contracted peptic ulcers because they could't handle stress until the bacteria was isolated that actually causes such ulcers. You won't learn this because psychiatrists don't like to get hemmed in by history, or science, or ethical considerations. The authors discretely ignore the fact that no autopsy has ever revealed a person to have had "schizophrenia" or that any disease revealed to have a genuine organic cause is removed from psychiatry and given to physicians, such as neurologists, who deal with real illnesses.

But do not fret. This book is directly in the psychiatric mainstream. It presents all the categories, classifications, modalities, complexes, and "treatments" just as if they were the product of actual science. It's as complex and convincing as an elaboration on astrology or phrenology. Like any good pseudoscientific tract, it is so splendidly dense and pretentious that it will not lack for credulous readers.

Yesterday's forgotten "cause" and "treatment" for "schizophrenia" is replaced by the hottest new thing. Every coercive treatment applied to involuntary subjects who don't accept that they are in any way "sick" is deftly rationalized. A century from now this will stand as one of the most fascinating compendia of quackery American has produced.

The best book on personality disorders on the market !!!
There are few books in psychology that are as comprehensive in scope and detail as Dr. Millon's book.The book provides a solid, integrative theory of personality and personality disorders that can be used not only in research, but also clinical practice by psychologists from any theoretical orientation. Because it is so comprehensive, the book is especially useful for students.The first section of the book (approximately 200 pgs.) is dedicated to laying down a foundation for the study of personality disorders -- the issues that it entails and a concise (yet, detailed) review of various personality theories.Dr. Millon then presents a rational, integrated theory of personality that is the foundation of his integrated biopsychosocial approach to personality.The rest of the book is dedicated to a detailed examination of the DSM-IV personality disorders. This single book can serve as a primary text for any advanced course in personality. Whether one aggrees with Dr. Millon's theory (and few can disagree with it completely once they understand it's comprehensive and integrated nature), this book is one that anybody who deals with the personality disorders MUST have on their bookshelf. ... Read more

Product Description
The 1994 edition of this book has been a definitive resource for both researchers and clinicians interested in the applications of the five-factor model to personality disorders. Since the publication of the first edition, a steady flow of new empirical research has been conducted, and key theoretical developments have occurred. This revised edition updates the book and offers nine important new chapters. A new chapter by the editors presents a comprehensive summary of 55 empirical studies published since 1994 on the relationship of the five factor model to personality disorder symptoms.

Additional new chapters cover
·The history and conceptual background of the FFM
·Five-factor translations of DSM-III-R and DSM-IV personality disorders
·Empirical findings on the structure and symptomatology of personality disorders from the five-factor perspective
·Application of the FFM to a variety of patient populations, including patients with borderline personality disorder, narcissism, and bulimia nervosa as well as substance abusers, psychopaths, and sex offenders
·The use of standardized instruments to assess personality
·The FFM's usefulness in tailoring treatment to the personality dimensions of particular patients ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The FFM is promising
I enjoyed going through this book, and I do believe incorporating measures of normal personality in to the framework of personality pathology is important. We need to be careful to not completely abandon personality disorders, ofcourse, as there may be many different maladaptive expressions of the abstract concepts identified as traits and facets in the FFM, and the facets themselves may possibly be constructed of semi-independent factors. This book will certainly help you understand one potential direction the field may take with DSM-V, though I don't think we can necessarily treat the FFM as containing every "trait" that would be clinically useful in a diagnostic system and individuals with various collections of traits may present differently. It will do what every good book should though, make you think about some of the assumptions that you normally operate under.
Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.
Author, Depressive Personality Disorder: Understanding Current Trends in Research and Practice
Depressive Personality Disorder: Understanding Current Trends in Research and Practice

FFM and diagnosis of personality disorders
A good starting point for adding the FFM at domain and facet levels to diagnose personality disorders, a useful tool to better comprehend individual differences in our current DSM categorical system. FFM assessment with the NEO PI-R helps me, as clinician, to build good therapeutic alliances with patients via collaborative assessments, since it seems easier to use common language terms a)for the patient to understand his/her underlying maladaptive schemas, and b)the clinician to aprehend strenghts in the patient's personality . Hope that the 3rd edition brings data on the use of NEO PI-R form R. ... Read more

Product Description
Daughter of Narcissus by Lady Colin Campbell is a stunning analysis and revelatory memoir of her own dysfunctional family positioned at the heart of upper class Jamaican society from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. Addressing the extreme narcissistic personality disorder of her mother, Georgie Campbell s latest book is both a personal, individual record and a penetrating study of this psychological disorder and how it affects and scars all members of the immediate family. Departing from her former studies of contemporary high society, Georgie Campbell has turned her intelligence and insight onto her own past, exposing the emotional truth beneath her family façade of class and privilege. The book interweaves private memories of her mother s destructive behaviour with a detailed analysis of the underlying realities and fantasies of the narcissistic personality. With disarming clarity and hard learnt wisdom, she shows us what motivates the behaviour sof the narcissistic female as she plots and schemes, destructively setting father against children, sibling against sibling and grand-parent against grand-child. The depth of her work can be seen in her inclusion of recent scientific/medial research on the subject, the extensive bibliography and her endorsement by the eminent Dr Anna Brocklebank, who has practised psychiatry and is the legal and medical adviser to the renowned Institute of Clinical Hypnosis. In addition the author interconnects the sociological, political and personal in startling ways. As she covers the end of the British Colonial Age and the rise of a new liberated generation in the 1960s and 1970s, she reveals how these cultural movements impinge on the dynamics and desires within the family Set against a backdrop of wealth and privilege, concealing the destructive and shocking behaviour of the disordered personality, Daughter of Narcissus is disarmingly honest, informed and sometimes disturbing. This compulsive book is not only a fascinating history of one socially prominent international family, but also a uniquely detailed study of narcissism, its manifestations and effects and how to survive them in order to lead a purposeful and affirming life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Engaging but troubling
I was cool to this story when I first picked it up.The author comes from a moneyed, privileged family and was writing about a disorder that, on the face of it, seems to be more an affliction of that class than anything else.Also, the author's tone was cool and detached, and I wasn't sure how much sympathy I would be able to muster for her.

Then I read more.Truly, the adage that money doesn't buy happiness is borne out in this family's story.The author describes horrifying abuse suffered by all of the children in the family at the hands of their mother and the acquiescence of her weak- but explosive- father.Worse than the physical abuse was the psychological twisting and molding the mother subjected all of the children too.(However, it seems to have only strengthened the strong bonds between the siblings.)

In 2010, probably every single person has witnessed or heard enough about parental abuse that most stories of such might invite, sadly, a sigh or shrug rather than horror.What makes this account so much worse was that the author had what she refers to as a "birth defect" that caused her to be raised as a boy when she should have been raised as a girl.Her traditional, scandal-conscious father absolutely refused to authorize the operation that would have corrected this error, and her mother used this opportunity to play father off against child, while strengthening her position with both.I was horrified that a parent would allow their child to remain in, as the author puts it, "limbo" when it was easily within their means to change it.It was only when the author's kindly and generous grandmother and aunt stepped in to help that she was able to reclaim her identity- but even then, not without the mother taking the opportunity to profit from the event.

Although the parents were wealthy and esteemed, they refused to offer monetary assistance to their daughter, even when she was in desperate need of a divorce to exit an abusive and exploitative marriage.The author had to call on her own cleverness and intelligence to extricate herself from that as well as many other close calls one might depend on a family for.Ultimately, this may have been to her benefit- parents do not live forever- but that can be cold comfort.

As for the author's detached tone, I came to pity her as I read more.It seemed to be an outcome of having to cope with a mentally ill parent- the best defense to shield herself from getting pulled into the dramas where she would always be a supporting, tragic player, and one she had to use up until her mother's death.

The book explained and illustrated narcissism and sociopathy well.While narcissism may be expressed more freely in a pampered class, it also easy to see how other people could suffer from it as well.Certainly, the underlying emptiness she describes is easy to imagine in others (although more people might express it as depression).While I wouldn't use this as an authoritative personality disorder reference, it does invite further study of the topic.

I'm not sure I have any interest in the author's works on Princess Diana, but I would be interested in reading her other titles.Well written, with the right balance of detail and introspection.

An intriguing exploration of a serious personal problem
To be entirely obsessed with oneself is an addiction, and it can destroy lives just like any other. "Daughter of Narcissus" is an observation of narcissism, from the perspective of a family member. Colin Campbell shows the impact of narcissism, something that she has noticed has taken a strong occurrence of infecting the upper and middle classes of the world, leaving them forgetting what's truly important. "Daughter of Narcissus" is an intriguing exploration of a serious personal problem. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a short-term dynamic model for the rapid treatment of personality disorders. For clinicians. ... Read more

Product Description
Until recently, the diagnosis and assessment of personality disorders had lagged considerably behind that of most other mental disorders.The IPDE is a new instrument that is compatible, through two modules, with both ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria. In the form of a semistructured clinical interview, it now provides a means of measuring major categories of personality disorders that previously had been ignored.It is also unique in that it seeks to secure reliable and uniform diagnosis that is both internationally and cross-culturally acceptable. Written by leading international authorities, this volume forms an invaluable reference manual to the IPDE instrument and its development. The book's first section includes an overview of the worldwide field trials of the interview and aspects of epidemiology that affect the current status of diagnosis and assessment research. The second section, detailing the full interview schedule and scoring system for the instrument, will further facilitate its use. ... Read more