Clinical Implications of Individual Differences: Ten Angles of Vision on Individuality

Dr. McWilliams will review ten different psychological lenses through which personality has been viewed (temperament, attachment, observed clinical pattern, defensive structure, affective organization, implicit cognition, drive tendencies, self-definition versus self-in-relation orientation, core relational theme, organizing developmental issue). She will emphasize the therapeutic implications of each angle of vision and give clinical examples. There will be time for questions and discussion. Learning Objectives: After this workshop participants will be able to: Enumerate ten angles of vision by which personality has been conceptualized Differentiate between conceptualizing personality in terms of traits and construing it in terms of intersubjective themes, and to apply that understanding toward a more nuanced formulation of the psychologies of their clients Improve their capacity to identify borderline personality organization in clients who fail to meet criteria for the categorical diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder Make clinical choices that increase their effectiveness with patients whose psychology seems organized mainly at the borderline or psychotic level of severity.