AS14-04 - Transference interpretation in transference focused psychotherapy

Abstract

Transference-focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically validated treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD). TFP is a modified psychoanalytic outpatient individual treatment with two sessions per week. TFP combines 1) a treatment frame with limit setting and containment of affects with 2) exploration of the intense affects that are in conflict within the individual. Similar to other specific treatments for BPD a treatment contract addresses potential threats to the patient’s and others’ lives and the continuation of the treatment. The TFP treatment manual provides a hierarchy of priorities to guide the therapist's interventions. TFP can be distinguished from other approaches by (1) its theoretical model of spilt-off mental states based on different internal images of self and other in the BPD patient, (2) the neutral position that guides the therapist to help the patient observe internal conflicts rather than to engage others in them, (3) the techniques of clarification, confrontation, and interpretation centered on the “here-and-now”, and (4) a focus on the transference relationship between patient and therapist as providing the data to understand the patient's internal relational world. The interpretation of relational aspects in the patient-therapist relationship is regarded as a core feature of TFP that paves the way for the integration of spilt-off internal concepts of the self and others and, thus, identity integration and integration more satisfying love, work, and leisure relations.