Abstract
Personality disorders, through a series of vicious cycles and self-fulfilling prophecies, usually skew interactions and events in a manner that confirms the preexisting cognitive distortions. As a result, therapy often becomes part of the problem rather than the problem part of the therapy. Cognitive therapists can benefit in dealing with this phenomenon by drawing on recent developments in psychoanalytic theory and technique. Object-relations theory views problems in the therapeutic relationship as a function of internalized representations of early child-parent interactions being projected onto the relationship (the cognitive equivalent of schemas being triggered within the therapeutic relationship.) Treatment can be enhanced by taking advantage of this process as the therapist acts as a participant-observer, helping the client clarify the projections (schemas) and then test and correct them, in part, through having a new kind of interpersonal experience with the therapist (encountering new evidence in the here-and-now), and then re-internalizing a new self-image and set of assumptions about others.
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