Otto Kernberg: A Contemporary Introduction

In this book, Frank E. Yeomans, Diana Diamond, and Eve Caligor provide a systemic review of Otto Kernberg’s multiple contributions to psychoanalysis, psychiatry, psychology, and our understanding of the mind and group behavior.

The book spans the full scope of Kernberg’s career, both highlighting the diversity of topics on which his writings have shed light and emphasizing conceptual threads that link the different areas of his work. It accessibly follows the experiences that had an impact on the development of his thought and the increasingly strong impact his writing and thinking have had on psychoanalysis and related fields. The authors draw on their decades of working closely with Kernberg to offer a unique insight into his teaching and research, focusing on his work on borderline and narcissistic pathology and the fundamental conceptualization of personality disorders.

Including an overview of Kernberg’s critique and expansion of traditional psychoanalytic training, as well as his role in developing transference-focused psychotherapy, this book is an invaluable guide to students, researchers, and analysts in practice and training looking to integrate Kernberg’s ideas into their own clinical and theoretical work.

Frank Yeomans is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Director of Training at the Personality Disorders Institute of Weill-Cornell, Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and Director of the Personality Studies Institute in Manhattan, USA.

Diana Diamond is Professor Emerita in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at CUNY and Senior Fellow at the Personality Disorders Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also adjunct full professor in the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, an honorary member of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Diamond has published extensively on personality disorders, attachment and narcissism.

Eve Caligor is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of the Psychotherapy Division at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.