Books
Robert P. Drozek
Mentalization: Utilizing reflection to heal from borderline personality disorder (2025)
Oxford
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Do you struggle with instability in your emotions, self-esteem, relationships, or behavior? If so, then you might have borderline personality disorder (BPD), a serious and relatively common mental health condition that is highly responsive to treatment. People with BPD can find it challenging to effectively mentalize — to "read," access, and reflect on mental states in themselves and other people.This book is all about mentalization-based treatment, or "MBT," one of the leading evidence-based therapies for people with BPD. As the first book for non-clinicians about MBT, it shows you how to apply MBT's techniques in your everyday life, so that - like the tens of thousands of patients whose lives have already been changed by MBT — you can get relief from the suffering of borderline personality disorder. With the help of worksheets, mentalizing prompts, and case examples from actual treatments of patients with BPD, the book walks you through the core elements in MBT as a therapy, outlining the therapeutic strategies that make MBT so effective.
Purchasers receive access to a webpage, so that you can download and print additional copies of worksheets and chapter reviews. This book will be helpful for people with BPD and other mental health conditions, family members affected by BPD, clinicians seeking to teach their clients about MBT, and members of the general public who are curious about mentalizing and MBT.
Robert P. Drozek
Psychoanalysis as an ethical process (2019)
Routledge
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What role does ethics play in the practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy?
For most of its history, psychoanalysis has viewed ethics as a “side issue” in clinical work―occasionally relevant, but not central to therapeutic action. In Psychoanalysis as an Ethical Process, Robert Drozek highlights the foundational importance of ethical experience in the therapeutic relationship, as well as the role that ethical commitments have played in inspiring what has been called the “relational turn” in psychoanalysis.
Using vivid clinical examples from the treatment of patients with severe personality disorders, Drozek sketches out an ethically grounded vision of analytic process, wherein analyst and patient are engaged in the co-construction of an intersubjective space that is progressively more consistent with their intrinsic worth as human beings. Psychoanalysis can thus be seen as a unique vehicle for therapeutic and ethical change, leading to a dramatic expansion of agency, altruism, and self-esteem for both participants. By bringing our analytic theories into closer contact with our ethical experiences as human beings, we can connect more fully with the fundamental humanity that unites us with our patients, and that serves as the basis for deep and lasting therapeutic change.
This book will be of interest to psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, as well as scholars in ethical theory and philosophy.
Robert P. Drozek, Brandon T. Unruh, and Anthony W. Bateman
Mentalization-based treatment for pathological narcissism: A handbook (2023)
Oxford University Press
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Despite the growing cultural and empirical interest in narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder, therapists often feel confused and overwhelmed about how to help patients struggling with these problems. “Mentalization” refers to the ability to read, access, and reflect on mental states in oneself and other people. Research shows that people with narcissism can suffer from extreme difficulties mentalizing themselves and others, leading to instability in their mood, interpersonal relationships, and sense of self.
Mentalization-based Treatment for Pathological Narcissism: A Handbook provides much needed guidance about how to effectively help patients suffering from narcissistic vulnerabilities. Mentalization-based Treatment, or MBT, is an evidence-based psychotherapy for patients with personality disorders, helping patients to reflect on mental states in themselves and others, resulting in significant improvements in everyday functioning.
This book reviews the deficits in mentalizing associated with pathological narcissism, describes how to give the diagnosis of narcissism to patients, outlines how to structure therapy sessions, and offers step-by-step techniques about “what to do and say” when sitting with these patients. Utilizing vibrant case examples and verbatim scripts from actual psychotherapies, the authors explain how to address the most common clinical challenges associated with narcissism: disconnection from emotions; impairments in empathy; rigid thinking; monologues and intellectualization; unstable self-esteem; and tendencies to blame other people for disruptions in their relationships.
This handbook will be of interest to all mental health professionals who encounter patients with pathological narcissism, as well as non-clinicians who are interested in learning more about the troubles in mentalizing associated with narcissism.
Brian Palmer & Brandon Unruh (Eds.)
Borderline personality disorder: A case-based approach (2018)
Springer
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This book brings together a series of experts and experienced clinicians to describe and discuss a series of BPD cases in a manner that emphasizes core descriptive and diagnostic features, generalizable principles and techniques, and key take-home messages for clinicians at all levels of experience. The book emphasizes consideration for the disorder from multiple perspectives to help identify effective responses to common clinical challenges and decision points.
To enhance interest, narrative, and readability, each chapter uses a consistent format to present a common clinical challenge along with an effective therapeutic response and discussion of relevant theoretical and empirically validated principles. Each chapter title contains a patient’s (fictionalized) name and a subheading identifying the clinical dilemma or approach to be illustrated. The text includes key points and chapter summaries to help pull together the most important takeaways as quick reference.
Borderline Personality Disorder is a vital resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, general internists, social workers, and all medical professions working with patients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.
Chapters
Bateman, A., Choi-Kain, L. W., & Unruh, B. (2022). Theory and practice of mentalization-based treatment. In H. Crisp & G. O. Gabbard (Eds.), Gabbard’s Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments (2nd ed.; pp. 89–106). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bateman, A., Unruh, B. T., & Fonagy, P. (2019). Individual therapy techniques. In A. Bateman & P. Fonagy (Eds.), Handbook of mentalizing in mental health practice (2nd ed.; pp. 103–115). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Cusin, C., Adler, K., Brown, H., Pliakas, A., Rosenquist, J. N., Spencer, A., Unruh B. T., Yang, H. (2010). Psychopharmacology. In J. N. Rosenquist & S. Nykiel (Eds.), The Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital residency handbook of psychiatry (pp. 170–229). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Drozek, R. P. (2021). Ethical processes in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. In M. Trachsel, J. Gaab, N. Biller-Andorno, S. Tekin, & J. Z. Sadler (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of psychotherapy ethics (pp. 529–544). Oxford University Press.
Drozek, R. P. (2019). Social workers. In L. W. Choi-Kain & J. G. Gunderson (Eds.), Applications of good psychiatric management for borderline personality disorder: A practical guide (pp. 141–167). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Drozek, R. P. (2018). Stimulating reflection and curiosity. In B. Palmer & B. Unruh (Eds.), Borderline personality disorder: A case-based approach (pp. 11–23). Springer.
Drozek, R. P., & Henry, J. (2021). Mentalization-based treatment. In R. E. Feinstein (Ed.), Personality disorders (pp. 237–258). Oxford University Press.
Drozek, R. D., Unruh, B. T., Liu, G. Z., & Demers, C. Z. (2023). Mentalization-based Treatment. In H. S. Friedman & C. N. H. Markey (Eds.), Encyclopedia of mental health (3rd ed.). Elsevier.
Palmer, B., & Unruh, B. T. (2018). Organizing and shaping a treatment toward change. In B. Palmer & B. Unruh (Eds.), Borderline personality disorder: A case-based approach (pp. 1–10). Springer.
Patzelt, E.H., Conway, S. J. Jr., & Choi-Kain, L.W. (2024). Multimodal treatments. In L.W. Choi-Kain & H.S. Connery (Eds.), Good psychiatric management: Borderline personality disorder & alcohol use disorder (pp. 135–166). American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
Robinson, W. M., & Unruh, B. T. (2008). The hepatitis experiments at the Willowbrook State School. In E. J. Emanuel, C. Grady, R. A. Crouch, R. K. Lie, F. G. Miller, & D. Wendler (Eds.), The Oxford textbook of clinical research ethics (pp. 80–85). Oxford University Press.
Unruh, B. T. (2020). Short- and long-term personality disorder treatment studies should inform one another: Commentary on “Brief therapeutic approaches for personality disorders.” In C. W. Lejeuz & K. L. Gratz, The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Disorders (pp. 498-501). Cambridge University Press.
Unruh, B. T., Sonley, A. K., & Choi-Kain, L. W. (2019). Integration with mentalization-based treatment. In L. W. Choi-Kain & J. G. Gunderson (Eds.), Applications of good psychiatric management for borderline personality disorder: A practical guide (pp. 307–326). American Psychiatric Association Publishing.