Sperry - Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-IV Personality Disorders

This book is to be read by both clinical professionals and graduate students alike. It is a thoughtful and practical reference text that readers will find useful time and time again as they face the difficult-to-treat patients who meet the criteria for personality disorders. Until two decades ago, the position of these disorders occupied a peripheral, if not a strained place in clinical psychology and psychiatry. The turn of events has been almost startling, with the DSM-III and IV giving these disorders a major position, via Axis II, in their innovative multiaxial model.

Trained as both a psychologist and a psychiatrist, Dr. Sperry is well prepared to be a discerning and organized teacher of clinical diagnosis and treatment. A sound and effective communicator, he presents complex ideas in a clear, and easily understandable, fashiona talent not especially common among authors in this increasingly central clinical field. His exposition and synthesis is most impressive.

Especially important, Sperry recognizes the significant advances that have taken place in the field of personality disorders in the past decade, hence justifying the updating of his well-received and widely read first edition. Moreover, the increasing need for mental health services has mounted astronomically, as people have become aware that their psychological needs can raise havoc on their health, career, social relationships, personal well-being, and creativity. No longer willing to accept their discontents and the unhappiness that has visited them by unkind circumstances, more people than ever are looking for competent professional help. What has also become strikingly clear is that most patients who seek assistance are suffering from the difficulties of longstanding maladaptive attitudes and coping styles, essentially what have come to be labeled personality disorders. What is needed are efficient diagnostic tools that enable clinicians to quickly recognize problematic character structures and a number of implementable, pragmatic, and short-term modes for treatment. It is in achieving these goals that Dr. Sperry's text will prove most useful.

His approach goes beyond merely describing the simple content of personality disorders. Dr. Sperry helps provide the reader with anunderstanding of the underlying sources and treatment implications of these disorders. The book will certainly assist those with considerable clinical experience, but it will be especially appreciated by beginners who will soon be introduced to clinical work with these problematic patients. This text assists the novice clinician every step along the way, from initial diagnostic contact to final treatment evaluation.

As Sperry points out, the realm of personality disorders has become increasingly significant in psychotherapeutic practice; it now fills a space that formerly focused solely on schizophrenia and affective psychosis. Whereas these latter illnesses are present in only a small proportion of patients seen by clinicians today, the dysfunctions of personality have become omnipresent, whether one practices marital and family therapy, forensics, behavioral medicine and health psychology, neuropsychology, or any of the other main realms of outpatient work. Not unexpectedly, the literature in this field has grown immensely and shortly will outstrip all other areas of psychological and psychiatric practice in the coming decade. If my own broad-ranging text Disorders of Personality has seen some 30 printings in its two editions thus far, then Dr. Sperry's current volume will add further to the impressive growth and acceptance of useful books in the field.

Sperry's text adds meritoriously to the mental health field's decision to assign a key position to this highly prevalent realm of psychotherapeutic practice. It is a noteworthy commendation of this work that his publishers encouraged him to write a revision, a thorough and updated text in a flourishing field of study.

-Theodore Millon, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Dean and Scientific Director,
Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychology