Transference-Focused Psychotherapy and Trust Processing in BPD: Exploring Possible Mechanisms of Change

Abstract

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) struggle to identify whom they can safely trust, and this struggle contributes to profound emotional turmoil in their close relationships. Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is an application of object relations theory (ORT) that posits that polarized mental representations of self and other define the personality organization of BPD. TFP aims to utilize a clear treatment frame coupled with an analysis of the therapeutic relationship (i.e., the transference) to help individuals with BPD integrate their polarized mental representations. Improvement in the capacity to trust others is inherent in the mechanisms of change in TFP. In this article, a social cognitive model of trust processing provides a new lens through which we formulate how TFP may enhance trust processing in BPD. Recent evidence from randomized clinical trials supports the argument that TFP may intervene with BPD in a way that is concordant with uniquely improved trust processing.