An interview with Otto Kernberg, MD on Transference Focused Therapy

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Otto Kernberg, MD on Transference Focused Therapy". In this edition of the Wise Counsel Podcast, Dr. Van Nuys interviews Otto Kernberg, MD on the topic of Transference Focused Therapy. Dr. Kernberg is one of the best known living psychodynamic (e.g., Freudian) theorists, famous for his work in object relations theory, and on the nature of personality disorders and their remediation. In the course of this interview, Dr. Kernberg defines the underlying problems common to severe personality disorders, highlighting the role of identity diffusion and the borderline personality organization, providing both an explaination of what these things are, and how they form developmentally. He discusses how the various severe personality disorders, including Borderline personality disorder and Narcissistic personality disorder, are attempts to compensate for these core problems. He then describes his Transference Focused Therapy, which represents an effort to create a research-supported variant of psychodynamic psychotherapy which can directly repair identity diffusion and borderline personality organziation, not just help people learn to cope better with their personality disorder symptoms.