Good Psychiatric Management and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Spectrum of...

Good psychiatric management for borderline personality disorder (GPM) and transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) are evidence-supported treatments that may be used in a complementary, flexible manner to provide a spectrum of psychodynamically informed care. In this article, we provide overviews of TFP and GPM, describing GPM's eclectic approach that includes psychodynamically informed supportive psychotherapy, case management, and medication management, informed by a model of hypersensitivity to rejection, comparing it with TFP's focus on identity integration and modification of standard psychodynamic techniques for use in treating patients with borderline personality disorder. We outline convergences and divergences between TFP and GPM in assessment, establishment of treatment goals and a treatment agreement, family involvement, and moment-to-moment psychotherapeutic interventions. The options for integration of TFP and GPM theoretical principles, as well as for models of treatment sequencing, are explored. Clinical vignettes are provided that illustrate sequential uses of GPM and TFP as part of psychodynamically informed long-term clinical management.