Brooks W. Baer – Personality Disorders: The Challenges of the Hidden Agenda

Outline

I. Learn the DSM-5® Personality Disorder System

• What is personality, where does it come from and where does it go?
• Attachment-the lifelong problem
• Personality pathology: genes vs. family vs. friends. vs. fate
• Personality disorders
• Spectrum or category
• Discrete or complex
• Bump in the road or end of the line
• Why can’t we all just get along?

II. “It’s all About Me.” The Challenge of the Hidden Agenda

• The core of the personality disorder: The unchanging agenda
• A review of the DSM-5® personality disorders and their agendas:
  • Criteria changes:
    • Schizotypal
    • Narcissistic
    • Antisocial (and Psychopaths!)
    • Borderline
    • Avoidant
    • Obsessive-Compulsive
    • Trait Specified (PDTS) What is that?
    • General Criteria for Personality Disorders
    • Levels of Personality Functioning
    • Personality Trait Domains

III. Actually, It’s All About You

• Transference & Countertransference
• What does transference and countertransference look like in our work?
• Boundary crossings and boundary violations
• Countdown to Calm
• How to tell when you are headed for disaster and how to intervene

IV. What Works and What Doesn’t with Personality Disorders

• Polypharmacy and the borderline client
• DBT, CBT and all the rest-which therapy for whom? What’s the evidence and what’s the truth
• Generic, but incredibly useful, therapy strategies for each disorder
• Are some disorders hopeless?

V. Nobody Gets Hurt: Violence, Suicide & Manipulation

• Self-injurious behavior
• The frustration of recurrent suicidal behavior
• Suicide risk assessment
• Keeping yourself safe

Limitations of Research and Potential Risks

Please Note: PESI is not affiliated or associated with Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, or her organizations.