Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

A bold look at the body as a source of contention for those who suffer from personality disorders.

This work connects interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, and psychoanalytic theory with cognitive and neuroscientific work on implicit memory, trauma theory, and dissociation to propose an integrated method for treating severe borderline and narcissistic disorders, with the prime aim of resolving the affect dysregulation that affects the various realms of bodily discomfort and existential pain.

Each chapter presents a particular case and illustrates the methods for working with the specific problems that arise: from bulimia to self-cutting to sexual identity diffusion to suicidality. Treatment is illustrated from the initial level of careful diagnosis to the first stages of the interaction to the further steps and development of the interpersonal work of the dyad patient-therapist, including powerful enactments. 

In accessible language that references psychodynamic and relational psychoanalytic theory, the book proposes a revision of the etiopathogenesis of personality disorders, starting from the traumatic interpersonal exchanges (early relational trauma, maltreatment, deprivation, and abuse). 

The book breaks new ground on several levels. For the first time the body is accorded full attention in the treatment: developmentally and epigenetically situation as it is "in-between" the self and the other (at first, the caregiver, then in other circumstances of upbringing and traumatic personal relationships). The body is viewed as the main vehicle of this dysfunctional development, so that both the body and the subject are at once the "victim"—the recipient of the dysregulation resulting in impulsivity, destructiveness, self-harm, or eating disorders—and the internalized persecutor, i.e. the abuser of one's own body that sometimes also becomes the aggressor of others.

Profoundly humane and scientifically sound, this book is a must-read for professionals, clients, and families involved in the difficult task of relieving the symptoms and reorganizing the personalities of subjects living in "borderline bodies."

1127963896
Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

A bold look at the body as a source of contention for those who suffer from personality disorders.

This work connects interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, and psychoanalytic theory with cognitive and neuroscientific work on implicit memory, trauma theory, and dissociation to propose an integrated method for treating severe borderline and narcissistic disorders, with the prime aim of resolving the affect dysregulation that affects the various realms of bodily discomfort and existential pain.

Each chapter presents a particular case and illustrates the methods for working with the specific problems that arise: from bulimia to self-cutting to sexual identity diffusion to suicidality. Treatment is illustrated from the initial level of careful diagnosis to the first stages of the interaction to the further steps and development of the interpersonal work of the dyad patient-therapist, including powerful enactments. 

In accessible language that references psychodynamic and relational psychoanalytic theory, the book proposes a revision of the etiopathogenesis of personality disorders, starting from the traumatic interpersonal exchanges (early relational trauma, maltreatment, deprivation, and abuse). 

The book breaks new ground on several levels. For the first time the body is accorded full attention in the treatment: developmentally and epigenetically situation as it is "in-between" the self and the other (at first, the caregiver, then in other circumstances of upbringing and traumatic personal relationships). The body is viewed as the main vehicle of this dysfunctional development, so that both the body and the subject are at once the "victim"—the recipient of the dysregulation resulting in impulsivity, destructiveness, self-harm, or eating disorders—and the internalized persecutor, i.e. the abuser of one's own body that sometimes also becomes the aggressor of others.

Profoundly humane and scientifically sound, this book is a must-read for professionals, clients, and families involved in the difficult task of relieving the symptoms and reorganizing the personalities of subjects living in "borderline bodies."

42.75 In Stock
Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

by Clara Mucci
Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders

by Clara Mucci

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$42.75 

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Overview

A bold look at the body as a source of contention for those who suffer from personality disorders.

This work connects interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, and psychoanalytic theory with cognitive and neuroscientific work on implicit memory, trauma theory, and dissociation to propose an integrated method for treating severe borderline and narcissistic disorders, with the prime aim of resolving the affect dysregulation that affects the various realms of bodily discomfort and existential pain.

Each chapter presents a particular case and illustrates the methods for working with the specific problems that arise: from bulimia to self-cutting to sexual identity diffusion to suicidality. Treatment is illustrated from the initial level of careful diagnosis to the first stages of the interaction to the further steps and development of the interpersonal work of the dyad patient-therapist, including powerful enactments. 

In accessible language that references psychodynamic and relational psychoanalytic theory, the book proposes a revision of the etiopathogenesis of personality disorders, starting from the traumatic interpersonal exchanges (early relational trauma, maltreatment, deprivation, and abuse). 

The book breaks new ground on several levels. For the first time the body is accorded full attention in the treatment: developmentally and epigenetically situation as it is "in-between" the self and the other (at first, the caregiver, then in other circumstances of upbringing and traumatic personal relationships). The body is viewed as the main vehicle of this dysfunctional development, so that both the body and the subject are at once the "victim"—the recipient of the dysregulation resulting in impulsivity, destructiveness, self-harm, or eating disorders—and the internalized persecutor, i.e. the abuser of one's own body that sometimes also becomes the aggressor of others.

Profoundly humane and scientifically sound, this book is a must-read for professionals, clients, and families involved in the difficult task of relieving the symptoms and reorganizing the personalities of subjects living in "borderline bodies."


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393712674
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 11/06/2018
Series: Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 480
File size: 7 MB

About the Author

Clara Mucci, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, case supervisor, and professor of psychology at Università Gabriele D’Annunzio. She lives in Italy.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Chapter 1 Personality Disorders and the Traumatized Body between Self and Other 3

Chapter 2 The Body between Nature and Culture 43

Chapter 3 How to Treat the Borderline Patient 63

Chapter 4 When There Is No Mirror for the Child: The Dead Mother Complex 89

Chapter 5 Sexuality, Gender, and Identity Diffusion in Severe Personality Disorders 120

Chapter 6 Complex PTSD and Dissociation 150

Chapter 7 Narcissistic Personality Disorders 177

Chapter 8 Suicidal Tendencies and Risk of Suicide in Borderline and Narcissistic Patients 213

Chapter 9 Psychosomatic Disorders and the Far End of the Narcissist Spectrum 244

Chapter 10 Hypochondria, Antisocial Traits, and Perversion 275

References 299

Index 337

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