ABSTRACT

Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) was based upon the Menninger Foundation’s psychotherapy research project that indicated that the optimal treatment of patients with severe personality disorders or “low ego strength” was a psychoanalytic psychotherapy, with systematic interpretation of the transference in the hours. The provision of as much external support as the patient required outside the hours to permit the treatment to develop successfully. The findings revealed the efficacy of all three forms of therapy, and showed significant differences regarding the treatment of suicidal and parasuicidal symptoms, more effective with TFP and dialectical behaviour therapy than with Supportive Psychotherapy. TFP was effective in reducing various aspects of aggressive affects and behaviour of these patients in comparison to the other modalities. The main strategy in the TFP of borderline personality organization consists in the facilitation of the (re)activation in the treatment of split-off internalized object relations of contrasting persecutory and idealized natures that are then observed and interpreted in the transference.