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Four different models of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), each based on a different psychopathological theory, have produced manualised treatments with evidence of efficacy. It can be argued, on the grounds of the comparable results of the outcome studies, that these different treatments share a common mechanism of action related to the same psychopathological kernel of Borderline Personality Disorder, albeit the key role of this kernel in the pathogenesis of the disorder is not explicitly acknowledged in their psychopathological theories. This paper argues that such a psychopathological kernel can be described as dissociative and is caused by chronic psychological traumatisation in the developmental years and by disorganisation of infant attachment -- two common features of Borderline Personality Disorder developmental psychopathology. Following a review of the studies supporting this hypothesis, the paper dwells on the basic psychotherapy processes allegedly shared by the four different models of Borderline Personality Disorder treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pierre Janet expounded repeatedly, in his writings, the three main differences between his theory, that he had called psychological analysis, and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory. First, the concept of narrowing of consciousness as the direct effect of vehement emotions is quite different from the idea of an active defensive process displacing unacceptable mental contents outside consciousness. Second, Janet's concept of the sub-conscious (le subconscient) diverges significantly from Freud's view of the Unconscious. Third, Janet's rejected what he labeled Freud's pan-sexualism. This paper is a cursory examination of contemporary psychological and neuroscience contributions to psychotraumatology that may be matched with Janet's three contentions about the main differences between his ideas and Freud's. The aim of the paper is to foster in the reader a reflection on how contemporary psychotraumatology may provide a common background for examining what seems more vital nowadays of the two divergent roots, French and Austrian, of dynamic psychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews theoretical, clinical and research studies on the apperance, in a subgroup of obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), of symptoms related to the disruption of the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity and perception (pathological dissociation). The coexistence of dissociative and obsessive-compulsive symptoms is a relatively frequent clinical occurrence, that seems to be responsible for unsatisfactory response to the cognitive-behavorial therapy (CBT) of OCD. The aim of the review is to clarify the different types of dissociative symptoms and processes that may appear in OCD, their relation to absorption in compulsive responses, and the role played by traumatic expreriences in the association between dissociative and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Such a clarification is a necessary premise to the implementation of modified types of CBT interventions able to yield satisfactory outcomes in cases of OCD complicated by dissociative symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years interest in dissociative phenomena has been growing steadily, both in the are of pathology related to trauma as well as in the study of the mental processes involved in various psychopathological conditions. This study aims to explore the relatioship between dissociative symptoms and other symptom areas. Our hypothesis is that a greater extent of dissociative phenomena is associated with having a larger variety of serious symptoms. To this end, we used the DES scale to measure and assess dissociative phenomena and scales SCL-90 R and BDI to measure the general psychpathology and in particular depressive features. The sample consisted of 263 patients admitted to a psychiatric ward of a nursing home because of problems related to depression and partly due to difficulties in managing their acting out impulse. The data analysis shows that patients with high scores on the scale of dissociation display significantly different symptom profiles, more serious and varied, compared to patients with low scores on the dossociative scale. In addition, we not that these same patients are hospitalized more often for problems related to impulsive acts and for presenting a diagnostic profile within the parameters of personality disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]