Abstract
Personality disorders (PDs) tend to be misunderstood by psychiatrists, who often fail to diagnose them. This is probably because psychiatry has come to define itself as rooted in neuroscience. An evidence-based treatment plan for PDs consists largely of psychotherapy, not psychopharmacology.
However, the state of psychological therapies for PD is confusing. A number of competing methods, each with its own 3-letter acronym, claim to be uniquely effective. As this book points out, there is no evidence that any of the current therapies is better than any other. And since all methods have useful ideas, why not integrate them and simply call the treatment “psychotherapy”?
I liked this book (I wrote one of the blurbs on the back cover). The aim of the volume is to justify integrated therapy and to describe what it would actually look like. The authors propose that treatment should be “modular” (i.e., a series of interventions nested within an overall plan).
The text provides a nice balance between theory and case examples. It is also clearly written.
I have a few criticisms. Multiauthored books do not always maintain a consistent point of view. The 3 editors are clearly on the same page and wrote (or partly wrote) 12 of the 21 chapters. But the other 9 are not always fully on message. I also would have liked guidance on how to shorten therapy and how to work in a multidisciplinary team.
Nonetheless, this book performs an important function for clinicians interested in treating these challenging patients. It shows that you do not have to go to courses or workshops to manage PDs. Instead, practitioners can build on what they already know but be more systematic, providing PD patients with the structure they so badly need.