The author of Personality Disorders: a Gestalt Therapy Perspective proposes a revision of Perls, Hefferline and Goodman's Theory of the Self in a way that brings it closer to contemporary issues in in the area of Personality Disorders. Understanding splitting and projective identification that chronically lead to experiential impasses, is an essential feature of the psychotherapy of the more severe personality disorders. In order to do so within the Gestalt framework, the author integrates certain developmental concepts from object relations theory, especially those put forth by W.R.D. Fairbairn (1954). This revised developmental perspective leads to an Object Relational Gestalt Therapy, in which the here-and-now therapeutic relationship is related to the there-and-then of the developmental past, as well as to the there-and-now of the client's current life situation. This text contains the integral version of the author's doctoral thesis. The thesis as such is followed by chapters on ORGT as Evidence Based Practice, and on the neurodynamics of ORGT. Finally, three cases analyses illustrate the theory in clinical context. About the Author: Gilles Delisle, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychology at the University of Sherbrooke. He is director of clinical training at CIG in Montreal, and a guest trainer at several institutes abroad. He is the director of Neurogestalt, a specialist group in the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society. In 2010, he was appointed President of the State Advisory Council on Psychotherapy and was awarded the Noel-Mailloux Prize by the Quebec College of Psychologists in recognition of lifetime achievement in clinical psychology. |