Description

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James F. Masterson pioneered an innovative clinical approach to the dynamic psychotherapy of personality disorder. Masterson held that borderline, narcissistic, and schizoid conditions begin when growth of outer relationship and inner object relatedness is inhibited at focal stages of the development of the self. A therapeutic relationship addressed to the specific developmental needs of a troubled personality, he believed, frees the natural progress of the self toward fulfilment. This review of Masterson's legacy cites his later integration of neurobiology as well as attachment theory and considers inclusion of such post-Masterson concepts as self-state theory. Clinical examples are offered throughout to illustrate this dynamic approach to a therapeutic challenge now at the forefront of today's caseloads.

About the Author

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Candace Orcutt, MA, PhD, holds a doctorate in Clinical Social Work, and is a certified psychoanalyst and widely published author. She teaches at the New Jersey Institute for training in Psychoanalysis. For twenty years she worked as an associate of James F. Masterson.