Mentalizing capacities depends on the quality of primary attachment interactions with caregivers who thinks of the child as a subject with mental states. Operationalized as reflective functioning, mentalization is crucial for regulating emotions and developing of a coherent sense of identity, for interacting with individuals making sense to own and others mental states, and for distinguishing internal and external realities without distortions. Although the clinical literature on interplay between mentalization, attachment, and emotional regulation is rich, the empirical research is limited. This study sought to explore connections between reflective functioning, attachment styles, and implicit emotion regulation, operationalized as defense mechanisms, in a group of depressive patients. Twenty-eight patients were interviewed using the adult attachment interview (AAI) and diagnosed using the Psychodynamic Chart-2 of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Second Edition. The reflective functioning scale and the defense mechanisms rating scale Q-sort were applied to AAI transcriptions to assess reflective functioning and defensive profile. Patients with secure attachment showed significantly higher levels in reflective functioning and overall defensive functioning as compared to those with insecure attachment. Good reflective functioning and secure attachment correlated with mature defenses and specific defensive mechanisms that serve in better regulating affective states. Overall, the relationship between mentalization, attachment and emotion regulation lay the foundations for the delineation of defensive profiles associated with attachment patterns and reflective functioning in depressive patients. The systematic assessment of these psychological dimensions with gold-standard tools may help in tailoring personalized therapeutic interventions and promoting more effective treatments.

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is one of the most challenging clinical syndromes to treat in psychotherapy, especially due to the difficulties of establishing a good enough therapist-patient relationship. Countertransference responses to NPD can be particularly intense, frustrating, and difficult to manage, as is often reported in the clinical literature though not clearly supported empirically. The aims of this study were to (a) investigate the relationship between patients' NPD and therapists' responses; (b) examine the associations between patient, clinician, therapy variables and clinicians' reactions during treatment of NPD patients; and (c) provide an empirically derived portrait of countertransference with NPD. A sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 67) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire to identify patterns of countertransference, the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200, and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale to assess the personality pathology and psychosocial functioning of a patient in their care. The results showed that NPD was positively associated with hostile/angry, criticized/devalued, helpless/inadequate, and disengaged countertransference and negatively associated with therapists' positive response, regardless of patients' personality and psychosocial functioning. NPD patients with stronger traits of cluster B personality pathology tended to elicit more negative and heterogeneous countertransference reactions than NPD patients without these features. The countertransference patterns with NPD patients were not strongly influenced by the variables of clinicians and therapy, with the exception of clinical experience. Overall, the portrait of therapists' reactions to NPD provided a clinically nuanced and empirically founded description strongly resembling theoretical-clinical accounts. The therapeutic implications of these findings were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The aim of this study was to examine the stability of the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Therapist Response Questionnaire (Betan, Heim, Zittel Conklin, & Westen, 2005; Zittel Conklin & Westen, 2003), a clinician report instrument able to measure the clinician's emotional reactions to the patient in psychotherapy. A national sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 332) of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral orientation completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire, as well as the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (Westen & Shedler, 1999a, 1999b), to assess personality disorders and level of psychological functioning, regarding a patient currently in their care. They also administered the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (Derogatis, 1994) to the patients. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed 9 distinct countertransference factors that were similar to 8 dimensions identified in the original version of the measure: (a) helpless/inadequate, (b) overwhelmed/disorganized, (c) positive/satisfying, (d) hostile/angry, (e) criticized/devalued, (f) parental/protective, (g) special/overinvolved, (h) sexualized, and (i) disengaged. These scales showed excellent internal consistencies and good validity. They were especially able to capture the quality and intensity of emotional states that therapists experience while treating personality-disordered patients, as well as to better differentiate them; additionally, they tapped into the complexity of clinicians' reactions toward patients experiencing severe psychiatric symptomatology. Results seem to confirm that Therapist Response Questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument that allows to evaluate patterns of countertransference responses in clinically sensitive and psychometrically robust ways, regardless of therapists' orientations. The clinical and research implications of these findings are addressed.