Empirical Developments in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically supported individualized psychotherapy for patients with borderline personality disorder. This review highlights its development and current status.

A review of the theoretical background underpinning TFP and empirical advances in the development of TFP provide perspective.

Otto Kernberg's object relations model of personality and its implications for assessment and diagnosis of personality disorders are described. The authors review the programmatic research that has been developed and has demonstrated the efficacy of TFP. In view of the empirical studies that have demonstrated the successful outcomes and processes of TFP for patients with borderline personality disorder, compared with other approaches, TFP has been applied to a broader range of difficulties related to patients' self-functioning and interpersonal functioning across the range of severities in personality pathology, consistent with the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders. The authors discuss borderline personality organization in the context of interpersonal, neurocognitive, and self-regulatory dysfunction, including preliminary findings.

The theoretical and empirical advances in TFP lead to future directions for research evaluating personality disorder and its treatment.