Back
Full-text
Journal article

Self-Contempt, the Working Alliance and Outcome in Treatments for Borderline Personality Disorder: An Exploratory Study.

  • Sallin L Reach Lab Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
  • Geissbüehler I Reach Lab Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
  • Grandjean L Institute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Beuchat H Institute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Martin-Soelch C Reach Lab Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
  • Pascual-Leone A Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Canada.
  • Kramer U Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Canada.
Show more…
  • 2020-12-01
Published in:
  • Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. - 2020
Clinical Psychology
English Objective. We examined the role of expressed self-contempt in therapy for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Based on previous literature on BPD, we assumed an association between the self-contempt and the core symptoms of BPD. We also studied the progression of expressed self-contempt during the treatment and its effect on the alliance and the outcomes of treatment. Method. We rated the expressed self-contempt in 148 tape-recorded sessions with patients with BPD (N = 50), during a brief psychiatric treatment. We rated self-contempt at three time-points, using an observer-rate scale. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess symptoms and the working alliance. Results. There are some associations between self-contempt and BPD symptoms. Expressed self-contempt did not change during the treatment. One measure of self-contempt was associated with a weaker alliance rated by the patients and with a stronger alliance rated by the therapists. The expression of high self-contempt was not predictive of outcomes when the initial level of problems was controlled for. Conclusions. The results highlight the importance to examine the complex effects of self-contempt in BPD undergoing treatment in a differentiated manner and suggest to clinicians and researchers to be attentive to this specific emotional state, and change therein, in psychotherapy. Keywords: Self-contempt; Borderline Personality Disorder; Brief Treatment; Therapeutic Alliance; Emotion Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01896024.
Language
  • English
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/1663
Statistics
Document views: 14 File downloads:
  • fulltext.pdf: 0