ABSTRACT
Families and family interactions can play a role in the development (vs. prevention), maintenance (or remediation), and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD); and, having a family member with BPD can have a significant impact on family functioning. This paper reviews a transactional model for the development and maintenance of BPD, with implications for treatment, particularly from the perspective of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). The paper also describes a subset of DBT interventions specifically developed for work with couples and families to turn the destructive “inaccurate expression/invalidation cycle” into the constructive “accurate expression/validation cycle,” which is illustrated by a case example. doi:10.1300/J200v06n01_17 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: >docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.]
