Interpersonal reconstructive therapy for passive-aggressive personality disorder

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Benjamin, Lorna Smith, presenter.

American Psychological Association, issuing body.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Interpersonal psychotherapy.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy.

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder.

Medical Subjects:

Interpersonal Psychotherapy.

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder.

Genre:

Nonfiction films

Educational films

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 streaming video file (46 min., 30 sec.))

Place of Publication:

[Washington, D.C.] American Psychological Association [2012]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

video file

Summary:

Clinical psychologist Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin conducts a fourth therapy session with a Caucasian male client-actor with passive-aggressive personality characteristics. The therapist works from an interpersonal reconstructive perspective to raise the client's awareness of his real feelings and opinions, which are obscured beneath his dependent style of relating to others, passive defense mechanisms, and somatic symptoms. The client describes a history of trying to do well in his jobs and relationships, yet repeatedly experiencing problems. The therapist empathically listens to the client's retelling of childhood episodes of physical and emotional abuse by his father following perceived failure to measure up to his expectations. She points out the discrepancy between his description of unhappy events and his cheerful facial expression. From information about the client's early history, Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin interprets current relational and work patterns as repetitions of past experiences in which the client's strivings were insufficient to meet his father's expectations; she highlights a pattern of self-fulfilling prophecies. She seeks to begin to reconstruct the client's sense of himself by presenting the notion of dualistic selves, in which one part of the self tends toward regression while another part strives toward growth. In the therapist's efforts to engage the client's real self, she challenges his facile agreement with her, invites him to be angry, and defines a therapeutic alliance in which the client and she collaborate toward growth. Note: Passive-aggressive personality disorder is not an established personality disorder in the DSM-IV but is listed under Appendix B for further study

Notes:

Recording date: 1999-01-01

Vendor provided data

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.