Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships With People With Disorders of Personality and Character

Featuring case vignettes from nearly 30 years of Dr. Yudofsky's clinical practice and incorporating the knowledge of gifted clinicians, educators, and research scientists with whom he has collaborated throughout that time, Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships With People With Disorders of Personality and Character uniquely captures the increasing body of clinical and research information about people with severe and persistent personality and character disorders. Covering the clinical course, treatment, genetics, biology, psychology, and destructive consequences of hysterical (histrionic), narcissistic, antisocial, paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, addictive, borderline, and schizotypal personality disorders, Fatal Flaws stands out in the literature for these powerful reasons: It is written for an unusually broad audience, from mental health students and trainees of all disciplines, to highly experienced clinicians, to patients who suffer from or are in destructive relationships with people with personality disorders. It is a hybrid-part psychiatric textbook for clinicians and part self-help manual for patients and clients with personality and character disorders. It is designed to supplement treatment by providing patients with practical, evidence-based information about personality disorders and character flaws. It is particularly valuable to patients who are in psychotherapy, in part, because they are entangled in destructive relationships with people with disorders of personality and/or character. It is written in the first person, with the author directly communicating with a patient who either has a personality or character disorder or is in an important relationship with a person who has such a disorder. It is useful for people who are uncertain whether they or their loved ones have personality or character disorders, and who want to know more about these conditions and their treatments before making a decision about securing the help of a mental health professional. Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships With People With Disorders of Personality and Character is a compelling volume that provides the essential information and a realistic sense of the clinical experience required to inform, orient, and support novice mental health professionals and seasoned practitioners alike as they face the ongoing challenges of treating patients or clients with personality or character disorders. An invaluable resource for those who wish practical and effective help in understanding and changing their destructive relationships with people who have severe and persistent disorders of personality and/or character.

About the Author :
Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D., is D.C. and Irene Ellwood Professor and Chairman of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. He is Chief of Psychiatry Services at The Methodist Hospital and is also responsible for oversight of academic activities in psychiatry at The Menninger Clinic and Hospital, the Ben Taub General Hospital, the Houston Veterans Administration Medical Center, the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and the Texas Children's Hospital. For the past seventeen years, Dr. Yudofsky has been Editor of the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, the official journal of the American Neuropsychiatric Association.

Review :
Fatal Flaws is a well-written, accessible guide for understanding personality disorders. Its discussion of symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment is thorough enough to serve as guide for mental health practitioners in training, yet the case studies and guidelines are practical and useful for the layperson who is in a relationship with someone with a personality disorder. PsycCRITIQUES Using 30 years of experience as a successful therapist in the psychoanalytic tradition, the author provides rich information about personality disorders through cases that illustrate symptoms and treatment. The book is hard to put down, attesting to the author's achievement of his goal of providing information about persons with these disorders in a clear and interesting way. The style of the book lends itself well to the targeted audience of those who are beginning or are in training to proved therapy for persons with personality disorders as well as for patients themselves or their families who want a better understanding of these 'flaws'. Doody's Book Review Service [Fatal Flaws] is readable, thorough, and unique practical sharing of the author's and the mentors' wisdom regarding personality disorders of all types delineated in the DSM-IV. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry