Interpersonal diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders

Bringing intellectual rigor and discipline to the art of psychotherapy, Lorna Smith Benjamin has developed a unifying theory of personality disorders that has unprecedented clinical relevance. This groundbreaking volume presents an interpersonal approach that will enable therapists of all theoretical orientations to increase their effectiveness and reduce their frustration in working with this very difficult population. The book opens with an introduction to the interpersonal approach and to the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) developed by Dr. Benjamin. This dimensional model of interpersonal and intrapsychic interactions can be used to assess patients, their families, and their therapists to determine the specific ways in which they interact with and influence one another. In the sections that follow, each of the DSM personality disorders is sharply delineated in a finely tuned description that is greatly enhanced by Dr. Benjamin's interpersonal approach and clinical insights. Adding an extensive and clinically useful list of descriptive amendments to the DSM criteria, she provides a sophisticated differential diagnosis that greatly reduces the problem of overlap in