Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are among the most challenging patients for clinicians to treat. Their behaviors and emotions can shift abruptly. As a result, these patients can seem like therapeutic moving targets, and improvement can be vexingly slow.

A Developmental Model of Borderline Personality Disorder is a landmark work on this difficult condition. The book emphasizes a developmental approach to BPD based on an in-depth study of inpatients at Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland, during the years 1950 through 1975 and the authors’ thirty years of clinical and supervisory experience. Using information gleaned from the original clinical notes and follow-up studies, the authors present four intriguing case studies to chart the etiology, long-term course, and clinical manifestations of BPD.

This book will help practitioners develop understanding and empathy for these patients by illuminating the disorder to help interpret its causes and course. Clinicians will find a wealth of insight and guidance for providing individual psychotherapy and designing the best mental health services to optimize outcomes in patients with BPD.