Personality Disorders Books

Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder

Paul T. Mason, Randi Kreger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 166 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

These authors OBVIOUSLY do NOT live with anybody who has BPD 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I would give this book five stars for research alone, but all of these books regarding Borderline Personality Disorder seem to be inter-plagiarized amongst themselves with the same research and facts and only a smattering of examples of adults who still suffer the consequences of growing up with a Borderline parent.It is both laughable AND nauseating to read how we should be "calm" while in the throes of being pummeled, beaten, slammed against walls, having our hair torn out, being shoved onto the floor and the relentless SCREAMING. I TRULY would like to see any of the authors of these books act in a "calm" fashion while being repeatedly smashed to bits on a daily basis. I am sorry to find out, 41 years too late, that my mother suffers from BPD; it took 41 years for me to become friends with a young woman who diagnosed my mother. After that, I frantically purchased this book and two others and the "coping" suggestions are completely ridiculous. The only thing/s the authors get correctly is that we are guilted into never leaving these horrible parents. In MY case, my mother has repeatedly threatened to kill me, jeopardized relationships with boyfriends, bosses and landlords, and screamed at me until I felt certain I would go deaf. Yes, I have remained calm, but having my head slammed repeatedly against walls, banisters and doors, as well as my integrity, emotions, feelings and reputation being equally pummeled by a nonstop barrage of insults, accusations and commentary has made me an extremely unhappy woman, and a very damaged one at that. I cannot even sleep due to my mother's abrupt appearances either at my home or place of work, if I hang up on her when she is insulting or screaming at me on the phone, she rages a personal vendetta about me to anybody who knows me and worst of all, is that when I was younger, I reported her insane behavior to my neighbors, doctors, school nurses, school chums, teachers and even the police and NOBODY DID A THING. 30 someodd years ago, there WERE no Social Service agencies in place to remove me from her dangerous dungeon and worst of all, if I had the audacity to complain about her relentless abuse, these people would question my mom, if they did anything, and this would make her so enraged, the beatings and screaming would escalate. My older brother only was her target for a few years and all he simply was doing was defending himself verbally. She kicked him out of the house at age 19 and ironically, as she has refused to work for 15 years now, I tried to help her by paying all her bills, ruining my credit twice, filing bankruptcy and never being paid back the nearly $50,000.00 I kept outlaying for all her ridiculous bills and debts. Whenever I complained, and justifiably so, that I had my own bills to pay, she bashed me so hard and screamed so loudly I truly prayed every single night I would go deaf, or simply die already. Yes, I also rented five apartments in my name after we were homeless and living in motels together, she refused to live in any of them; I even bought a house which she demanded I buy and refused to live there, so I immediately put it back on the market until it sold, I lost thousands of more dollars DUE TO buying that house, gave her back the profits when it sold, because of her repeated violence and threats to kill me (she'd given me money as a downpayment and never even told me she HAD any money and when I'd complained that she should have paid me back, I got bashed to bits), and her latest accusation is that I KEPT MONEY from the house when it sold, when it was absolutely not true. It is true that people with BPD come up with bizarre accusations, but what is most troubling of all is that these three books I have purchased TRULY did NOT touch base upon the fact that the violence is instant and savage and relentless in nature. They say violence "can occur", well, I have never seen anything the likes of what this horrid woman pulled on me my entire life and thank God I no longer live with her, but she still makes repeated threats against my pets, job, relationship with my boyfriend and I never know what this insane woman is going to pull next. She always is well-behaved around my brother, so I don't see how this can be a disorder when she can control her vicious rages, screaming and violence while in the presence of my brother, but the moment she sees me, she goes off on her un-ending screaming, insults, accusations and that painful hitting. I finally hit her back once, when I turned 30 and she practically murdered me from simply trying to defend myself. Yes, I have written letters to her doctors and positively all of them must be quacks, because NOBODY finds anything wrong with her. I have had horrendous Jewish guilt trips laid on me my entire life to keep taking this vicious woman's crap, abuse, insults, screaming, punching, hitting and hair pulling and she is crafty and manipulative enough to lie about me to everybody who knows me, thus these people question me relentlessly about how I can let my mother "suffer". This woman has her Social Security to live on, yet after supplying some 300 links to rentals from CraigsList, refuses to rent a place; instead, she either flies back and forth to my brother's home, or else she stays in motels for months at a time. She complains positively 24 hours per day and never has a kind word to say to me. So I say to the authors of these three books, you couldn't BEGIN TO KNOW what it is like to live with somebody who hates you so ferociously and thinks nothing of breaking your hands, giving you fat and bloody lips, black eyes, who tears out your hair, and slams you against walls, kicking, punching and screaming at you. Your suggestions are beyond ludicrous. You couldn't possibly have been put in the position of trying to placate these insane people, who REFUSE TO SEEK HELP!

Editorial Review:

Stop Walking on Eggshells: Coping When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder is a self-help guide that helps the family members and friends of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) understand this self-destructive disorder and learn what they can do to cope with it and take care of themselves. It is designed to help them understand how the disorder affects their loved ones and recognize what they can do to get off the emotional roller coasters and take care of themselves.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Workbook: Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, & Distress Tolerance (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)

Matthew McKay, Jeffrey C. Wood, Jeffrey Brantley

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New Harbinger Publications Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $13.27

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A Clear and Effective Approach to Learning DBT Skills

First developed for treating borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, especially for those characterized by overwhelming emotions. Research shows that DBT can improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. In order to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas--distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

This book, a collaborative effort from three esteemed authors, offers straightforward, step-by-step exercises for learning these concepts and putting them to work for real and lasting change. Start by working on the introductory exercises and, after making progress, move on to the advanced-skills chapters. Whether you are a professional or a general reader, whether you use this book to support work done in therapy or as the basis for self-help, you'll benefit from this clear and practical guide to better managing your emotions.

The individual struggling with overwhelming emotions and DBT therapists will benefit significantly from this workbook. McKay, Wood and Brantley have expanded and translated DBT Skills, making Linehan's iconic work on emotional skill building even more accessible and easy to apply to everyday life.
--Kate Northcott, MA, MFT, is a DBT therapist in private practice with Mindfulness Therapy Associates and is director of New Perspectives Center for Counseling, a non-profit counseling center, in San Francisco, CA

The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family

Eleanor Payson

Amazon Price: $14.95 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Julian Day Publications Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $9.01

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Abuse & Self Defense -> Sexual Abuse
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Relationships -> Interpersonal Relations

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Every day headlines are filled with examples of narcissistic individuals in positions of power who are nothing more than impostors plundering and wrecking havoc on the lives of others. From the financial barons of Wall Street to our elected officials in government, we are confronted daily with narcissists and the self-serving systems that enable them. Helping people reclaim their lives from this sinister exploitative force is the mission behind Payson's book, The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family. Using simple metaphors from the American classic, The Wizard of Oz, Payson illustrates how Dorothy's journey captures all the seductive illusions and challenges that occur when we encounter the narcissist. Empowering the reader with the ABCs of unhealthy narcissism and the unique problems that occur when a person becomes involved with the narcissist, Payson gives step-by-step practical tools to identify, protect, and heal from these destructive relationships. Largely un-addressed in the psychology and self-help literature, this ground breaking book offers hope and help to those who have been drawn into these devastating relationships. She includes illuminating case studies that identify the problems that occur in the different types of relationships, from co-workers, to friends, to parents, to lovers. Readers employing these insights and skills will find new abilities to identify and protect against the narcissist's manipulations and take back control of their lives.

Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder

Marsha M. Linehan

Amazon Price: $34.20 List Price: $38.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: The Guilford Press Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $28.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

not a useful book 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 20 people found this review helpful.

I was asked to get this book by my therapist for use in my therapy. I think that this book does more harm then good. While the homework sheets could perhaps be useful, the overall book is written for the therapist. While most training manuals need to be written dispassionately and for general use. This book, frankly, lacks humanity. It generalizes about people with BPD to the extreme, allowing for no middle ground. I also find the large title to be violating of my privacy.

True Believer is a Patient 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

And that's me. I've been taking a class/group for months on the practices of Dr. Linehan. Of course, this was taught by an awesome doctor and an advanced degree student (who is definately going to make the world a much happier place). All of this combined, this workbook (which the class works out of) is happily, lifechanging. After almost 5 years of suffering with PTSD and depression suffered from injuries in a car accident, only these past few months working through this theory, I feel like my life is coming back now. My family is happier, my life is happier, I am happier. Find a therapist who CAN work with you through this theory and most everyone will benefit with a more positive and happier YOU! Good luck! It works!

Editorial Review:

A vital component in Linehan's comprehensive treatment program, this manual details precisely how to implement DBT behavioral skills training procedures. Included are over three dozen invaluable patient handouts and homework sheets. Clinicians may recommend this book for client purchase or can photocopy patient materials and distribute them as needed.

Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified: An Essential Guide for Understanding and Living with BPD

Robert O. Friedel

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $7.35

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Borderline Personality Disorder Demystefied 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book was informative, but troubling to read. Though it promises to reassure those struggling with this disorder, the prognosis looks pretty bleak to me, even after reading the book. Could that be a part of the disorder, or could it just be that this book failed to reassure me? In any case, I am still looking for the answers to the tough questions that BPD pose to the sufferer.

Editorial Review:

Over six million Americans suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a chronic, disabling psychiatric condition that causes extreme instability in their emotional lives, behavior, and self-image, and severely impacts their family and friends. In Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified, Dr. Robert Friedel, a leading expert in BPD and a pioneer in its treatment, has turned his vast personal experience into a useful and supportive guide for everyone living with and seeking to understand this condition. Friedel helps readers grasp the etiology of Borderline Personality Disorder, the course it takes, the difficulties in diagnosing it, the types of treatment available, strategies for coping, and much more. Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified is an invaluable resource for everyone diagnosed with BPD, those who think they might have the illness, and friends and family who love and support them.

Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process

Nancy McWilliams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the first text to come along in many years that makes psychoanalytic personality theory and its implications for practice accessible to beginning practitioners. The last book of its kind, which was published more than 20 years ago, predated the development of such significant concepts as borderline syndromes, narcissistic pathology, dissociative disorders and self-defeating personality.
Contemporary students often react with bewilderment to the language of pioneering analysts like Reich and Fenichel and, since 1980, the various volumes of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have reflected an empirical-descriptive orientation that deliberately eschews psychodynamic assumptions. Consequently, today's therapist in training may have little exposure to the rich clinical and theoretical history behind each disorder mentioned in DSM; to psychoanalytic expertise with widely recognized character patterns not mentioned in DSM, such as depressive and hypomanic psychologies, high-functioning schizoid personalities, and hysterical personalities; or to a comprehensive, theoretically sophisticated rationale that links assessment to treatment.
Filling the need for a text that clearly lays out the conceptual heritage that psychoanalytic practitioners take for granted, this important new volume explicates the major clinically important character types and suggests how an appreciation of the patients' individual personality structure should influence the therapist's focus and style of intervention. Dispensing with the dense jargon that often discourages people from learning, Nancy McWilliams writes in a lucid, personal manner that demystifies psychodynamic theory and practice. Innumerable clinical vignettes are presented with humor, candor, and compassion, bringing abstract concepts to life.
Comprehensive in scope, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis will be valued by seasoned clinicians and students alike. Psychodynamically oriented readers will find it an excellent introduction to psychoanalytic diagnostic thinking. For those identified with other approaches, it will foster psychoanalytic literacy, providing them with the capacity to better understand the approaches of their analytically oriented colleagues.

Drop The Rock: Removing Character Defects, Steps Six and Seven, Second Edition

Bill P., Todd W., Sara S.

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hazelden Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $7.87

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

drop the rock 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has helped me in my 12step recovery. I've been working the steps for over 20 years and I now realize how I have not done thorough 6th and 7th steps. That is what my life was lacking. Great read, great book. Happier life.

Editorial Review:

Resentment. Fear. Self-Pity. Intolerance. Anger. This cast of character defects will undermine the best-laid plans for recovery from addiction. It's not uncommon for individuals in recovery to hang on to negative, self-defeating behaviors after they've given up their addiction. These are the "rocks" that can sink recovery - or, at the least, block further progress. With more than 100,000 copies sold, Drop the Rock is the definitive guide to removing character defects that can prevent gratifying, long-standing recovery. Based on the Twelve Step program, particularly the principles behind Steps Six and Seven, Drop the Rock combines personal stories, practical advice, and powerful insights to help readers move forward in recovery. The second edition features additional stories, a reference section, and information about starting a Drop the Rock study group.

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Marsha Linehan

Amazon Price: $45.73 List Price: $66.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: The Guilford Press Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $35.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

THE Book 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

As a Borderline reading a book written for the clinician, it opened my eyes as to how others see me. It has helped me to see the areas in my mind that CAN be changed and has helped me to begin making those changes.
It is written by a 'non-writer' and is very difficult to read at times without a psych. manual ;)!! lots of $1000.00 words that are not for the layman, but if you want to know more about 'The Borderline', it will help you to learn who and what they are, and how and why they they think the way they do. For those angels among us,it teaches the greatest program on how to help us to change.

A Godsend 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I've just started reading the book and have skimmed the workbook. She is, as one reviewer stated, very compassionate. I myself am a borderline individual, recently discovering it as of last week from a caring boyfriend. I went to the library and checked this book out. Never have I been blown away by how this book describes my feelings and pains so accurately. I never, for all these years, understood what was wrong with me, assuming it was everyone else. Ms. Linehan has definately helped my outlook on life. I'm very grateful for this book.

Editorial Review:

University of Washington. Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders Series. Text for clinical psychologists or psychiatrists giving an overview of borderline personality disorder and presenting the author's preferred form of treatment, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder

Rachel Reiland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

DEFINITE READ 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm the wife of a BPD spouse and after reading every book I can on the subject as well as belonging to support groups, trying therapy, this book, for me was the most helpful. It has enabled me to have a better understanding and to see more clearly what's really going on when an episode begins. I am much more aware of using S.E.T. I read this book in three days and I know I will read it again before I go back to S.W.O.E. again. I think this book should be a must read for any partner or relative of someone with BPD.

Editorial Review:

Borderline Personality Disorder. "What the hell was that?" raged Rachel Reiland when she read the diagnosis written in her medical chart. As the 29-year old accountant, wife, and mother of young children would soon discover, it was the diagnosis that finally explained her explosive anger, manipulative behaviors, and self-destructive episodes- including bouts of anorexia, substance abuse, and sexual promiscuity. With astonishing honesty, Reiland's memoir reveals what mental illness feels like and looks like from the inside, and how healing from such a devastating disease is possible through intensive therapy and the support of loved ones.

The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide

Alex Chapman, Kim Gratz

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New Harbinger Publications Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $10.04

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An important, forward-thinking, much welcome book 5 out of 5 stars.
53 of 54 people found this review helpful.

As someone diagnosed with BPD, I have done a lot of research on the condition, both online and by reading any book written on the subject. Many of those books (except for BPD Demystified)are extremely outdated, even if they're only a few years old. And many of them were disappointedly irresponsible, being quite negative and insisting that the prognosis was always dire and/or perpetuating the huge myth that those diagnosed with BPD are basically manipulative.

I say this because this book is different. It has the latest information on BPD, from what it is, how it may come about, what therapies are out there, if medication helps, and, quite important, speaks about new research on the brain and how this research shows actual physical differences in those with BPD. The book succeeds most in 2 particular ways: (1) In the way it is organized. Well-written chapters, clear headings and subheadings, easy for anyone and everyone to understand, and comprehensive summaries at chapter ends to note the main points. The books is also divided into Parts I and II, to make the focus and direction even clearer. For this alone, it is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in BPD, whether a professional, consumer, family member, friend, student, etc.

And furthermore, (2) The Survival Guide does not take one position and stubbornly adhere to it. It recognizes that there are many differences among those diagnosed with BPD, even as the similarities in how they "match" the criteria kinda puts us all in the same group. Of all the information out there, it presents the most "open" view, meaning that it is informative and hopeful and recognizes that this is a complex condition but that it is indeed treatable. And the authors cite many studies to back up their points. They don't pretend to have all the answers, but instead create an opening for real dialog and discussion.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly, without any reservation whatsoever. It will educate you, let you see the individuality of people diagnosed with BPD, and present you with the latest in therapy and in research, without prejudice. I am thankful for this book. It is honest and impartial. And perhaps above all else, that's what BPD literature presently needs the most.

Editorial Review:

The book is organized as a series of answers to questions common to BPD sufferers: What is BPD? How long does it last? What other problems co-occur with BPD? Overviews what we currently know about BPD make up the first section of the book. Later chapters cover several common treatment approaches to BPD: dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), mentalization-based therapy (MBT), and medical treatment using psychoactive drugs. In the last sections of the book, readers learn a range of day-to-day coping skills that can help moderate the symptoms of BPD.