Cognitive therapy for personality disorders: A schema-focused approach

by Jeffrey E. Young

Revised edition (1994), Practitioner's Resource Series, Published by Professional Resource Press

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

79 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Jeffrey E. Young is an American psychologist best known for having developed schema therapy. He is the founder of the Schema Therapy Institute.
After earning an undergraduate degree at Yale University, he obtained a higher education degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where he then pursued postdoctoral studies with Aaron T. Beck.
He has written numerous books on cognitive behavioral therapy and schema therapy. His two most famous books are Schema Therapy (for professionals), and Reinventing Your Life (for the general public).

Reviews

[John M]

A nice concise summary of schema therapy, which in my view more quickly summarizes his massive and beautiful Bible "Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide". There is some new information not covered in the latter, the most helpful of which was his passing remark about primary, secondary, and linked schemas: the former refers to the big schemas (what some folks would call "core schemas"), secondary schemas are schemas that aren't as primary as primaries, usually independent of them, and generally are lower scoring than them. Linked schemas are those that connect with primary schemas, such as defectiveness with unrelenting standards, and I've seen this combination a lot with depressed clients with whom I work: I'm a defective person (because mom was too critical and dad wasn't there), but if I'm able to fulfill my high standard, then I'm not a defective person for as long as it's fulfilled (because mom stopped criticizing me and dad stuck around when I tried hard enough).

Read this, Schema Therapy, and the best self-help book I've ever read, Reinventing Your Life (also by Young and Klosko), and you'll revolutionize yourself and your therapeutic practice. Schema Therapy is touted as advanced CBT, or CBT for personality disorders, but in reality it's the ideal for integrative psychotherapy, fusing cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, psychoanalytic (transference and countertransference as useful tools for understanding client schemas, and burrowing into the client's childhood to figure out how schemas were born), and gestalt approaches. It's changed my practice and psychological perspective dramatically.

[Kate]

Must read for professionals working with clients with Axis II traits/diagnosis.

[Me]

If you're a psych geek such as I am, and you are sometimes frustrated when you're working with a client with a PD, this book is pretty good.