Personality Disorders Over Time

Precursors, Course, and Outcome

Joel Paris, M.D.

2003
224 Pages
Editorial Reviews

ISBN 978-1-58562-040-1
Item #62040

Paperback
eBook

Description
Contents
Editorial Reviews
About the Authors

Treating personality disorders can be extremely frustrating for clinicians. As a result, many doctors get caught in a cycle of diagnosing and rediagnosing in an attempt to find an approach that works. In Personality Disorders Over Time: Precursors, Course, and Outcome, Joel Paris, M.D., proposes a better approach-one based on management rather than cure-that he developed while following a group of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) for over 25 years.

Paris believes that the key to effective treatment of personality disorders lies in understanding their progression over a lifetime. In Personality Disorders Over Time, he outlines a sound framework for treatment that features

A realistic long-term treatment approach that strives for gradual recovery with intermittent interventions
An examination of the progression of these disorders over time, including childhood precursors, course and outcome, and treatment
A general theory of personality disorders, including Axis I and Axis II cluster disorders
Suggestions for a broader, more accurate DSM classification reflecting the personality trait dimensions that underlie disorders

Written in the first person, studded with clinical anecdotes, and filled with up-to-date literature references, Personality Disorders Over Time provides fascinating insights into these complicated disorders. It is an excellent resource for any clinician who wants to understand and provide more effective treatment to patients with personality disorders.

Joel Paris, M.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University; Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the Health Centre at McGill University; and Research Associate at the SMBD-Jewish General Hospital, in Montreal, Quebec.

It is not often that one reads a comprehensive text in one or two sittings or over a weekend. As a child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, I found that reading the very well written distillate of Joel Paris's long clinical and empirical experience was an invaluable education. It is a book that I will undoubtedly repeatedly refer to for its insights, its elucidation of particular issues, and its highly comprehensive review of the clinical and empirical literature. I recommend this book highly to researchers and clinicians, whether seasoned or novice.—Leon Hoffman, M.D., The American Journal of Psychiatry, 8/1/2004

The breadth of scholarship and the depth of clinical wisdom that characterizes this book could only come from an author who has spent many years immersed in the subject matter. From this experience, Dr. Paris has written a lucid and original overview on personality disorders that will be instructive to readers from all levels.—John G. Gunderson, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts; Author, Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide

Joel Paris remains a master teacher helping us understand and grapple with the Axis II spectrum. . . . He offers a comprehensive overview of personality disorders from the perspective of long experience, scientific objectivity, and clinical compassion. The result is a cornucopia of case-illustrated treatment strategies tailored to the practitioner who, as Dr. Paris wisely observes, cannot avoid encountering people with problems of personality.—Thomas H. McGlashan, M.D., Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

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