ABSTRACT
Borderline personalities tend to be emotionally labile and impulsive individuals who exhibit a pattern of intense and chaotic relationships. Their personal lives are characteristically unfocused and unstable and are marked by frequent disappointments and rejections. Not surprisingly, the treatment of borderline personalities involves a number of unique therapeutic challenges. Although many clinicians remain skeptical about the treatability of this disorder, there is increasing hopefulness that these individuals can and do respond to effective treatment strategies. This chapter describes specific engagement, pattern analysis, pattern change, and pattern maintenance, and termination strategies for effectively managing and treating this disorder. In addition to individual psychotherapeutic strategies and tactics, group, marital, family, medication, and integrative and combined treatment strategies are briefly noted. An extensive case example illustrates the treatment process. Before turning to treatment strategies, the DSM-IV description and criteria are briefly presented.
