Borderline conditions are a growing presence in the treatment room, yet they are uncommonly resistant to treatment. Dr. Kernberg and his colleagues have already articulated the modality they call Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. Now, in an unusually textured elaboration, they confront the complications that limit treatability--co-existing psychopathologies, early trauma/dissociation, problems endemic to the therapeutic situation (attachment disturbances, erotic transferences)--and bring new rounds of clinical ammunition to meet those challenges.

Treating borderline patients is one of the most challenging areas in psychotherapy because of the patient's extreme emotional expressions, the strain it places on the therapist, and the danger of the patient acting out and harming himself or the therapeutic relationship. Many clinicians consider this patient population difficult, if not impossible, to treat. However, in recent years dedicated experts have focused their clinical and research efforts on the borderline patient and have produced treatments that increase our success in working with borderline patients. Transference-Focused Therapy...