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Position Paper—Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) for Narcissistic Personality

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Abstract

Purpose of review

The authors describe the application of a twice-weekly, exploratory psychotherapy, Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), to patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). The paper describes the pathology of object relations within which narcissistic pathology can be understood, and how TFP establishes a treatment framework to address narcissistic pathology. An outline of the assessment and treatment protocol is described along with a case example to illustrate the same.

Current findings

The application of TFP to patients with NPD follows from recent research demonstrating the effectiveness of TFP for patients with BPD including some patients with comborbid NPD.

Summary

Although empirical studies of the efficacy of TFP for NPD are lacking and warranted the authors suggest that, in the absence of any other empirically supported treatment for NPD, TFP may be applied to this challenging patient population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

    Barry L. Stern Ph.D.

  2. Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York, NY, USA

    Barry L. Stern Ph.D.

  3. City University of New York, New York City, NY, USA

    Diana Diamond Ph.D.

  4. New York Presbyterian Hospital—Weill Medical College at Cornell University, New York, New York, USA

    Diana Diamond Ph.D. & Frank Yeomans M.D., Ph.D.

  5. New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York, NY, USA

    Diana Diamond Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Barry L. Stern Ph.D.
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  2. Diana Diamond Ph.D.
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  3. Frank Yeomans M.D., Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barry L. Stern Ph.D..

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Conflict of Interest

Barry L. Stern declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Diana Diamond declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Frank Yeomans declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Stern, B.L., Diamond, D. & Yeomans, F. Position Paper—Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) for Narcissistic Personality. Curr Treat Options Psych 5, 275–289 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40501-018-0143-3

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