Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment [Hardcover]

Salman Akhtar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0876685386 | ISBN-13: 978-0876685389 | Edition: 1St Edition

This book integrates psychiatry and psychoanalysis to present deeper and sounder clinical profiles of the personality disorders than have been hitherto available.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This outstanding book by Dr. Akhtar offers a fresh and novel classification of severe personality disorders. He meticulously outlines the characteristics of each of the severe personality disorders and desribes in encyclopedic fashion the technical issues pertaining to their treatment, making this book a valuable desk reference for students as well as for seasoned clinicians. (Volkan, Vamik )

This encyclopedic text is most impressive in its ability to organize all the personality disorders in a modern dimensional system while still retaining the nosological categories that emphasize the centrality of identity disturbances and splitting for the more severe forms. Utilizing his wide net of past and present papers and a clear and very readable style, Akhtar has combined the descriptive and dynamic without sacrificing depth of conceptualization for clarity. A wonderful work. (Melvin Singer )

About the Author

Salman Akhtar, M.D. , is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the Book Review Editor of the Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, an associate editor of the Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research, member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, past member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, and an editorial reader for Psychoanalytic Quarterly.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876685386
• ISBN-13: 978-0876685389
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,490,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, March 31, 2000

By 

Julia Perlmutter (new york city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment (Paperback)

This is an excellent review of personality disorders. It is a beautifully written and readable text which explains theory of personality development (especially object relations theory), personality disorder, and psychotherapuetic techniques for treating personality disorders. It is a fascinating text for clinicians, philosophers, or anyone interested in personality development and pathology.

7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Objects, not Relations, June 25, 2003

By 

Sam Vaknin (Skopje, Macedonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment (Paperback)

With an introduction by the doyen of the field, Otto Kernmberg, the book sails off to a good start. Akhtar is a prolific scholar of personality disorders. This tome is typically lucid and borrows from a deep theoretical background coupled with a rich clinical experience. Yet, it is largely confined to the vantage point of Object Relations theory and, therefore, lacks coverage of recent advances in treatment modailties as diverse as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Gestalt, NLP, and others. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".

3 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where did he learn it?, February 6, 2005

By 

Patricia B. Ross (Wellesley, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment (Hardcover)

This most simple question of all in the field of domestic violence is never asked. Regardless of where men acquire their narcissistic attitudes, or justify their dominance, where and how they learn to treat women with such disrespect and contempt is a high value question to be asked. Most would never expect women to treat them similarly, and in fact, most women would never dream of treating them similarly because they have been conditioned to respect males. So, where do men learn to mistreat women? As children, it does not happen automatically. Either it must be learned in their family home, or it must be taught through religion, schools, or the miltiary with reinforcement through media. Women do not teach men to mistreat women. Seeking the source of its progression, it may be possible to treat and cure the patient, unless, of course, the status quo is preferred to meet some malcontent in men's desire for what they erroneously view as ego enhancement. The master/servant mentality that often precedes male dominance may be one source, though they rarely learn that at home unless by example, or a misreading of principles at work. Interestingly men sometimes but more rarely are abusive to children or the elderly. Does that mean culture prefers the burden of wife abuse? Or, are men hardwired for pediphilia, trusting and feeling generous toward children, but competitive toward adults? Just where do males learn to torture and mistreat women so disdainfully? Answer this question, and society may find a solution to numerous kinds of domestic violence.