Borderline Personality Disorder Books

reviewed by Carol

Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified Friedel, Robert O. MD. Marlowe & Company. 2004.

I read this because I have friends with BPD, and I wanted to understand the disorder better so I could help them moderate the disease. It's fascinating to read about disorders I don't have.

Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation Levenkron, Steven. Norton 1998.

I read this book out of morbid curiosity, and to better understand my scarred friends. I gained some insight into the feelings that drive some people to carve on their own bodies and I'm able to understand it in the context of my own head banging behavior.

Depressed & Anxious: The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Workbook for Overcoming Depression & Anxiety Marra, Thomas Ph.D. New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2004.

As the title suggests, this is a DBT workbook. Amy recommends it highly, as it's often used in outpatient therapy groups.

Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder Linehan, Marsha M., Ph.D. The Guilford Press, 1993.

This is a book on Dialectal Behavioral Therapy. One of my friends with BPD recommended this book to me because it has a lot of coping skills that are useful in getting through depression. For that it is helpful, but neither of us can figure out how to apply DBT skills to mania.