A practical approach to the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder.

This approach to the treatment of BPD is part of a general framework for treating all forms of personality disorder. The therapeutic model has two components: (1) general strategies to manage core self and interpersonal pathology that characterizes all cases of personality disorder and (2) a specific or tailored component required to treat the problems of individual cases. The general strategies, derived from generic models of therapeutic change and self-psychology, emphasize the therapeutic relationship and the importance of a consistent treatment process, validation, and building motivation. A combination of specific interventions, including medication and psychotherapeutic strategies drawn from treatment approaches, is incorporated into this framework as required. The overall model is not an eclectic approach to treatment but an integrated framework based on an understanding of borderline pathology that emerges from recent research.