Treating borderline personality disorder: An overview

This article reviews and integrates the previous articles under central concerns facing the field about the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder. Since borderline is a heterogenous category, various authors have isolated treatment-relevant subgroups. One approach to structuring treatment with these impulsive and chaotic patients is to begin with an explicit treatment contract. The choice of treatment tactics and techniques is related to the types of outcomes conceptualized by the various orientations. Finally, the therapist training needed to work with this patient population is examined. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.