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Borderline Personality Disorder and the Conversational Model: A Clinician's Manual
The accompanying manual to Dissociation Model of Borderline Personality Disorder . This manual offers therapists and patients a user-friendly guide to general principles of treatment via case examples, therapeutic conversations, and common comorbid problems. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has a suicide rate similar to schizophrenia and major depression, but for many years, it was considered intractable. The Conversational Model is scientifically-based on the research data described in Meares’s Dissociation Model of Borderline Personality Disorder , and offers unique treatment protocols for the trauma associated with BPD. Rich with clinical tips and case examples, this book will help a range of mental health professionals working with patients suffering from this debilitating disorder.
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 5, 2021
I borrowed this book from Tom Ryan on his recommendation. I continue to attempt to further my skillset and knowledge in the talking therapies. Mears advises “The aim of therapy is maturational. Specifically, it is to help the patient discover, elaborate, and represent a personal reality, i.e., a reality that relates to an inner life and has an affective core” (p 4). Given the aim of the conversation model is maturation, developmental theory plays a big part of the theoretical basis of the conversation model. Understand how children healthily mature, is important if we are going to help adults healthily mature.
I found a quote to support an idea that people have been saying to me for some time. “Chronic suicidal thoughts can be comforting, as patients report that they are able to go on living only if they know they can kill themselves. Many patients with BPD keep a stash of medication or a much treasured suicide plan, in order to have a sense of control over a life that is felt to be unbearable” (p 131). It is macabre to think that people find comfort in the thought that they kill themselves if things become unbearable. This sense of control makes the unbearable, bearable. It is supportive of what Albert Camus wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus. The most important choice one makes everyday is to go on and not kill oneself. Mears again alludes to this later in the penultimate chapter.
I like the Conversational Model as a way of thinking about therapy. It sounds simple, but there is a lot to remember. I found the last chapter especially difficult; it was a bit beyond me. I am contemplating getting my own copy for reference purposes. The writing was opaque at times and reminded me of how I felt when I read Gestalt. I found Robert Hobson’s “Form of Feelings” clearer and easier to understand. This was more technical and harder work. Nothing worthwhile is easy, and this is not an easy book.
I found a quote to support an idea that people have been saying to me for some time. “Chronic suicidal thoughts can be comforting, as patients report that they are able to go on living only if they know they can kill themselves. Many patients with BPD keep a stash of medication or a much treasured suicide plan, in order to have a sense of control over a life that is felt to be unbearable” (p 131). It is macabre to think that people find comfort in the thought that they kill themselves if things become unbearable. This sense of control makes the unbearable, bearable. It is supportive of what Albert Camus wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus. The most important choice one makes everyday is to go on and not kill oneself. Mears again alludes to this later in the penultimate chapter.
I like the Conversational Model as a way of thinking about therapy. It sounds simple, but there is a lot to remember. I found the last chapter especially difficult; it was a bit beyond me. I am contemplating getting my own copy for reference purposes. The writing was opaque at times and reminded me of how I felt when I read Gestalt. I found Robert Hobson’s “Form of Feelings” clearer and easier to understand. This was more technical and harder work. Nothing worthwhile is easy, and this is not an easy book.
May 20, 2013
Amazing concept of analogical relatedness as a key to change and a means of bypassing linguistic filters in the left hemisphere.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews