Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Ψυχοδυναμική Ψυχοθεραπεία σε Ιατρικό ΠλαίσιοLibrary of the School of Health Sciences
Author:
Aforozis Theodoros
Supervisors info:
Γρηγόριος Βασλαματζής, Ομότιμος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, Ε.Κ.Π.Α., Επιβλέπων
Αικατερίνη Παπανικολάου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική Σχολή, Ε.Κ.Π.Α
Μαρία Τζινιέρη – Κοκκώση, π.μ. Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική Σχολή, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Original Title:
Αποφευκτική διαταραχή σε άτομα με οριακή οργάνωση προσωπικότητας: Ο ρόλος της επιθετικότητας.
Translated title:
Avoidant patients with Borderline personality organization. The role of aggression.
Summary:
The patients who avoid close relationships are usually reluctant to openly express their anger on the contrary, they tend to remain in obscurity presenting a timid and subdued self. Nevertheless some avoidant patients display often anger/aggression both in and out of the therapeutic relationship. The capacity to neutralize large quantities of aggression constitutes one of the criteria of ego strength. The patients with personality disorders within the borderline continuum are characterized, among others, by their intense anger and ego weakness. The first aim of the present study is to examine whether, to what extent and in which types of patients, the avoidance of close relationships is related to aggressiveness directed towards others, within the framework of borderline personality organization. Considerable heterogeneity characterizes patients with borderline personality disorder. In the last twenty five years several researchers have attempted to identify distinct subtypes of borderline patients as a first step in identifying which treatment works best for which individual .The second aim of this study is to examine whether avoidant patients who frequently externalize their anger could fall under any of the subtypes of borderline personality disorder described in the literature. The present investigation is a conceptual study of the relationship between the avoidance of close relationships and the aggression directed towards others. It is based on the analysis of the relevant psychoanalytic literature and uses as illustrations some clinical vignettes from the psychodynamic treatment of an avoidant patient with borderline personality structure. The analysis of research findings so far suggests that: (I) the expression of aggressiveness plays an important part in the instability and sudden termination of borderlines close relationships,(II) the frequent externalization of anger in avoidant patients points to the existence of an underlying borderline personality structure, and (III) the avoidant patients who frequently express overt anger are likely to belong to a subgroup of borderlines who are described in Hallquist et all(2012)study as «angry/mistrustful». The fact However, that the present study is conceptual and is based on a specific patient, poses is a serious limitation to the generalizability of our last finding. Further research, of the qualitative type based on a larger sample of subjects is needed for testing the validity of our findings.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Avoidance, Aggression, Borderline personality subtypes
