J Psychother Pract Res DSM-IV-TR Content Alerting
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ALL ISSUES SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by ZANARINI, M. C.
Right arrow Articles by FRANKENBURG, F. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by ZANARINI, M. C.
Right arrow Articles by FRANKENBURG, F. R.
Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research 3: 25-36, 1994
Copyright © 1994 American Psychiatric Association, Inc.

Emotional Hypochondriasis, Hyperbole, and the Borderline Patient

MARY C. ZANARINI ED.D.1 and FRANCES R. FRANKENBURG M.D.1

1 McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, and the Consolidated Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

The authors define a new defense mechanism, emotional hypochondriasis, that is hypothesized to be central to borderline psychopathology. The behavioral manifestation of this defense—the hyperbolic stance of the borderline patient—is also defined and related to the complex phenomenology of borderline personality disorder. Borderline patients are seen as making an active attempt to maintain a tolerable, if tenuous, adaptation in the face of tremendous subjective emotional pain that has been shaped in large measure by traumatic childhood events that have never been validated. Twelve treatment implications and three expectable, if overlapping, stages of treatment stemming from the use of this defense and its behavioral sequelae are detailed.

Submitted on February 2, 1993
Revised on September 5, 1993
Accepted on September 8, 1993




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Am. J. PsychiatryHome page
M. C. Zanarini, F. R. Frankenburg, J. Hennen, and K. R. Silk
The Longitudinal Course of Borderline Psychopathology: 6-Year Prospective Follow-Up of the Phenomenology of Borderline Personality Disorder
Am J Psychiatry, February 1, 2003; 160(2): 274 - 283.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ALL ISSUES SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1994 American Psychiatric Association