Ales Zivkovic, MSc, PTSTA(P) will present the treatment of personality disorders (PDs) with emphasis on borderline personality disorder (BPD) at the online European Association for Transactional Analysis (EATA) 2021 Research Conference. The talk will present theory and practice in the treatment of personality disorders from the perspective of interpretive dynamic TA psychotherapy (IDTAP).
It will look at the topic from the perspective of integration of findings from other approaches—predominantly those of object relations theory—into TA.
The focus will be on the use of TA as interpretive dynamic psychotherapy and how such approach can be used to promote structural and functional personality change, resulting in what Berne referred to as the psychoanalytic cure.
The talk will also present some of the research findings associated with various approaches used in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and how they may be seen through the lens of TA.
The content of the talk will include:
The developmental perspectives underpinning personality impairments and their role in the development of dynamic and structural characteristics of personality.
The relationship between intrapsychic and interpersonal manifestations in individual’s adult life, along with the utilisation of intrapsychic and interpersonal defensive strategies.
Re-enactments in the therapeutic setting; understanding transference and countertransference in the work with personality disorders and the use of these concepts diagnostically.
Understanding symptomatology from the perspective of intrapsychic processes and the defensive role of symptomatology.
The importance of contracting, boundaries and the therapeutic frame.
Characteristics of the interpretative process as the main vehicles of change.
Some of the common therapeutic stalemates etc.