Transference-Focused Psychotherapy

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Borderline personality disorder; Object-relations theory; Personality disorders; Psychoanalytic psychotherapy; Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Introduction

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is a manualized, empirically supported, outpatient psychotherapy designed specifically to treat patients with severe personality disorders, such as borderline personality and narcissistic personality disorders. TFP was developed by Otto Kernberg and his colleagues, most notably Frank Yeomans and John Clarkin, at the Personality Disorders Institute at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College, who modified standard exploratory psychodynamic psychotherapy to conform to the developmental psychopathology and clinical needs of those with severe personality disorders (Yeomans et al. 2015). The efficacy of TFP has been demonstrated in several studies, both with regard to symptom change and change in personality. Based on these studies, a number of treatment guidelines and reviews, including...

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References

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Correspondence to Kenneth N. Levy .

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Levy, K.N., Kivity, Y. (2020). Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_2297

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