Major Theories of Personality Disorder, Second Edition [Hardcover]

Mark F. Lenzenweger Phd (Editor), John F. Clarkin PhD (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1593851081 | ISBN-13: 978-1593851088 | Edition: Second Edition

Now in a fully revised and expanded second edition, this landmark work brings together in one volume the most important current perspectives on personality pathology. Chapters from leading experts have been extensively rewritten to reflect a decade's worth of significant theoretical, empirical, and clinical developments, and two entirely new chapters have been added. Coverage encompasses psychodynamic, interpersonal, attachment, ecological, psychometric, and neurobiological models, all presented in a consistent format to facilitate ready reference and comparison. The volume also explores similarities and differences among the various theories, identifies potential avenues of integration, and discusses key implications for research and clinical care.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This superb volume offers an up-to-date presentation of the major theoretical approaches to disorders of personality. Aside from including more recent neurobiological thinking, this edition benefits from the ability of such major theorists as Otto Kernberg and Aaron T. Beck to continue to revise their theories in the light of new data, and to present their theories concisely and with clarity."--Drew Westen, PhD, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University

"This second edition continues to challenge received wisdom as to what the major theories of personality are, treating both personality theory and its uses in the service of informing the practices of psychotherapy as open concepts. Psychopathologists and clinicians will find plenty to expand their horizons, and personologists will be alerted to the dynamic changes from evidence-based research in their own territory."--Irving I. Gottesman, PhD, Hon FRCPsych, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota

"This second edition represents a major revision of the original, and, more importantly, it continues to distinguish this work as the authoritative reference on the topic. Lenzenweger and Clarkin have assembled many of the world’s leading authorities on personality pathology to present a superb array of theories. The contributors cover the waterfront, with models ranging from neurobiological to interpersonal. The volume remains peerless and will surely engage readers at all levels of expertise."--Dante Cicchetti, PhD, Mt. Hope Family Center, Rochester, New York

"Lenzenweger and Clarkin have produced a book that provides outstandingly useful information for researchers and students of personality theory and psychopathology, as well as for the clinician dealing with the personality disorders in a practical setting. They have assembled comprehensive chapters by experts in the theories concerned, together with thoughtful discussion about the directions in which future research might progress. This combination of theory, practice, and research is of critical value. It belongs on the desk of every serious student of psychopathology and personality."--Brendan A. Maher, PhD, DrPhil, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

About the Author

Mark F. Lenzenweger, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Behavioral Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton and Adjunct Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York City. He also directs the Laboratory of Experimental Psychopathology at SUNY/n-/Binghamton, where he conducts research and teaches on personality disorders, schizophrenia, schizotypy, and statistical methods.

John F. Clarkin, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Director of Psychology and Co-Director of the Personality Disorders Institute at New York/n-/Presbyterian Hospital. His academic writing and research have focused on the phenomenology of the personality disorders and the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; Second Edition edition (November 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593851081
• ISBN-13: 978-1593851088
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #907,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relative to the 1996 First Edition..., August 27, 2009

By 

Rodger Garrett "SighKoBlahGrr" (Loma Linda, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Major Theories of Personality Disorder, Second Edition (Hardcover)

While Strack's =Handbook of Personology and Psychopathology= is more current and extensive, it'll also set you back a good $80.00 or so to lay your hands on one at this time. The "flooring" here is '90s vintage, but it's pretty solid construction both theoretically and empirically. The nine contributors hereto were all among the top people in personality theory at the time, with Aaron Beck, Lorna Benjamin, Otto Kernberg and Teddy Millon ranking at the =very= top of the heap.

Of necessity in a book this size, =Major Theories...= is a tree-topper much of the way, but three of the five conceptualizations are plenty deep for beginning (or even intermediate-level) readers. Kernberg, Benjamin and Millon (with sometime co-author Roger Davis) go =long=, and though the sledding can get pretty soggy here and there (Millon can be a trial for anyone), full attention is well rewarded.

Kernberg (arguably The Man on borderline personality) gives one of the most coherent presentations of his career here. Moreover, he brings a =very= modern perspective to the psychoanalytic theory that (at least for me) used to make Kernberg's extremely important work pretty verbally opaque. One can see it all quite clearly here.

Benjamin summarizes her work in =Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy= in detail, then clarifies how it relates to personality in crystal clarity. Her explanation of the "important person and their internalized representation" is one of the most literate descriptions of psychodynamic theory I've ever come across.

Millon and Davis make you work for it, but as has been the case every time I've gone down the road with Teddy, the meat =is= all there on the bone (and, perhaps unfortunately, then some; some of the material here seems irrelevant). For those who have read Millon's epic =Personality Guided Therapy= (1999), here, at least, is the "how" and "why" of his remarkable illuminations.

Beck (and co-author James Pretzer) make a convincing case for personality as the behavioral result of core beliefs, ideals, values, assumptions, convictions and attitudes driving current appraisals, evaluations, interpretations, judgments, analyses and/or attributions of meaning. The depth here is not what it is in Beck's and Freeman's =Cognitive Theory of Personality Disorders= (strongly recommended), but it is adequate to establish a grasp of what is currently the most accessible and widely utilized theory in current psychotherapeutic practice.

Due to my own training in personality theory, behaviorism, object relations theory (and psychodynamic psychology in general), and cognitivism, I was personally most impressed with the foregoing sections of =Major Theories=. But my more limited schooling in millennial-era "neuropsychology" met with disappointment in Depue's solid but limited article on the biology of personality. While he certainly covered impulsivity in spades, I saw as much relevance in Millon's notions about the bipolar nature of personality-disordered behavior and how they might fit into both essentially manic and essentially depressive, as well as truly Axis I "bipolar" schemes.

I surely would have looked more deeply into the "condition" of the bits and pieces of the limbic system's "brake lining," into dendritic growth or decay in affective memory centers, into excitotoxicty (a =major= issue in the paranoid, schizotypal and borderline PDs), and into the autonomic nervous system in general and post-traumatic stress disorder in particular. (The data was available in the mid-'90s; see Louis Cozolino, Michael Gazzaniga, Joseph LeDoux, Alan Schore and Bessel van der Kolk, just to name a few.)

In whatever event; the rest of the book is =so= worthwhile, I am forced to give it a nice "high five."