Handbook of Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment

by W. John Livesley (Editor)

This authoritative work comprehensively reviews what is known about personality disorders, including vital information to guide clinical decision making. Leading experts synthesize contemporary thinking about the classification, etiologies, and development of these complex disorders. Diagnostic issues are explored, and available assessment instruments are discussed. The Handbook provides in-depth coverage of all commonly used psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments, with particular attention to the empirical evidence for each approach. Also addressed are special treatment modalities, such as day programs and group therapy, and forensic issues.

Genres: Psychology

626 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jordan]

Overall, this is an extremely valuable resource if you are a researcher or clinician interested in personality disorders. Some of the research chapters could do a better job of synthesizing the findings rather than just listing them and examining them and I do wish there was more information on a broader range of personality disorders (other than BPD and ASPD), but that narrowness is probably more a product of the field than the book itself.

The major content domains are Conceptual and Taxonomic issues (excellent), Psychopathology (solid if perhaps a bit superficial), Epidemiology (useful but dense and could have benefited from more synthesis), Etiology (not as useful to me as a clinician, better found in treatment manuals), Diagnosis and Assessment (interesting and useful), Specific patterns (limited in breadth), Evidence based interventions (excellent and impressively comprehensive)

[Ozias]

A lot of useful information for clinicians, but the size of the book, and the layout of it makes it difficult to read. Essentially, it's formated like a collection of journals - which are easier to read digitally imo.