Personality disorders - borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, avoidant, compulsive - are pathological amplifications of normal traits, according to Joel Paris, M.D. And because traits have strong genetic components and do not undergo radical change over an individual's lifetime, Dr. Paris believes that therapists should seek to work with them.

Accordingly, he develops guidelines for treatment that focus less on childhood and past experiences and more on patients' present lives. The attainable objective is to help patients make use of their underlying personality characteristics in adaptive rather than rigidly maladaptive ways.

In support of his model, Dr. Paris reviews and builds on research findings pertaining to each disorder in terms of both clinical phenomena and factors predictive of psychotherapeutic outcome. His approach, organized with unusual coherence and illustrated convincingly with case material, uncomplicates complicated conditions with its fresh perspective on the problems and promising treatment techniques.