Download or read book Disorders of the Self written by Marshall L. Silverstein and published by American Psychological Association (APA). This book was released on 2007 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this though provoking book, Marshall L. Silverstein applies a self psychological viewpoint, as formulated and broadened by Kohut, to understanding personality disorders. He recasts them as disorders of the self, grouping them into one of three patterns, centering on (a) combating devitalization, (b) forestalling fragmentation, or (c) seeking alternative pathways to a cohesive self. He describes each group, outlines its main theoretical viewpoints, and then offers a self psychological reformulation of how the behavior and symptom patterns represent deficits in self-cohesion. In the first deficit pattern, devitalization (in schizoid, schizotypal, and avoidant personality disorders), the patients central problem is maintaining vitality when the need for affirmation or admiration has been ignored or insufficiently acknowledged. In the second pattern (in paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, and borderline personality disorders), patients harbor fears that their fragile self-cohesion may come undone. In the third pattern (in dependent, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders), patients attempt but often fail to develop compensatory structures to repair their chronically injured self-cohesion"--Jacket. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)