Objectives. The present study explores the relationship between the mentalization of distinct affect categories and the severity of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms. Mentalization is assessed by both the level of verbal elaboration (VE) achieved by discrete affects (explicit mentalization) and the proportion of these individual affects in verbal expression (implicit mentalization).



Design and methods. Sixty-four outpatients completed a series of questionnaires and took part in an interview designed to produce eight relationship episodes that involved four basic emotions: sadness, joy, anger, and fear (two of each). Affect mentalization was assessed with the Grille de l’Elaboration Verbale de l’Affect (GEVA), an observer-rated measure of levels of elaboration of verbalized affect, and the measure of affect content (MAC), which identifies the content of the verbalized affect (e.g., anger). Diagnostic criteria were obtained with the BPD scale of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II) questionnaire. Alexithymia was assessed with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).



Results. The severity of BPD symptoms was related to lower levels of VE of sadness. It was also associated with a higher frequency of hostility directed against others. The level of VE of sadness and the proportion of hostility showed incremental predictive value of borderline symptomatology over demographic information, the presence of a depressive disorder and alexithymia.



Conclusions. These findings point to an association between the severity of BPD symptoms and a difficulty mentalizing specific affective domains largely recognized as being central to borderline pathology, namely sadness and hostility.

Verbal elaboration of distinct affect categories and BPD symptoms

The study aims to compare the mental states and countertransference responses of 92 psychodynamically oriented psychotherapists, male and female, experienced and inexperienced, facing written reports of real patients who experienced traumatic events. Two vignettes were presented: one of a sexual violence, the other the sudden death of a significant person. The Mental States Rating System (MSRS; Bouchard, Picard, Audet, Brisson, & Carrier, 1998), the MSRS Self-Report (Goldfeld & Bouchard, 2004), and the Inventory of Countertransference Behavior (ICB; Friedman & Gelso, 2000) were used. Results showed that the mourning vignette led to more reflective responses (MSRS) and the rape case was associated with more negative countertransference reactions (ICB). Female participants were more reflective (MSRS); male therapists used less mentalized states (MSRS Self-Report) and expressed more negative reactions (ICB) for both scenarios. Experienced therapists showed more positive reactions on the ICB. The construct validity of the instruments is discussed in relation to the findings.

Mental states as part of countertransference responses in psychotherapists facing reports of traumatic events of mourning and sexual violence

Recent interest in the transformative impact of reflective mechanisms on affect regulation has led to a focus on forms of "mentalized affectivity." This article aims at describing a method for assessing affect mentalization as it appears in verbal data. The method will be illustrated by a preliminary exploration of sex differences in the verbal expression of affect in a clinical setting. The Grille de l'Elaboration Verbale des Affects (GEVA) was applied to the transcribed first evaluation interview of 18 female and 18 male patients seeking psychotherapy. Controlling for GAF and language, results reveal that women take more ownership of their affect and are more expressive, verbally and nonverbally, than men, who are more mentally externalizing and use the motor modality more often than women.

Assessing Verbal Elaboration of Affect in Clinical Interviews: Exploring Sex Differences

Based on the recent discussion on evidence-based psychotherapy, the last 5 volumes of the international journal Psychotherapy Research were bibliometrically analyzed The analysis demonstrates the variety and complexity of recent psychotherapy research by investigating articles from Psychotherapy Research, which serves as the official organ of the Society for Psychotherapy Research North American and European contributions were compared with respect to the hypotheses, research tradition, methodological approaches, leading representatives (frequently cited authors of the journal), and the reception of the international state of research Regardless of the current dominance of empirically supported treatments, the editors of Psychotherapy Research strategically compiled a wide variety of current research approaches without restricting the publications to randomized controlled studies that evaluated care systems This approach has proven successful in view of the impact of the journal within the scientific 

Bibliometric Analysis The Journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and the Diversity of Psychotherapy Research: A Compilation and Comparison of North American and European Contributions

The numerous controversies over the definition of the narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) bring forth inconsistencies in its assessment. Recent work supports the idea that affect regulation is a defining issue of NPD. Nevertheless, research on the subject is scarce; affect regulation is probably underestimated in NPD’s current diagnostic procedures. Moreover, the degree as to which these affects predominate their relational narratives has not been evaluated. A better awareness of NPD’s characteristic means of representing and regulating affect should significantly improve its diagnosis. The present study is an exploratory analysis of the relationship between affect representation and narcissistic features. Affect representation was assessed with the Grille de l’Élaboration Verbale de l’Affect (GEVA), an observer-rated measure of levels of elaboration of verbalized affect, and the Measure of Affect Content (MAC), which identifies the content of the verbalized affect (e.g., anger). NPD features were measured by the number of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–IV Axis II questionnaire items endorsed by the participants. Results show that higher levels of NPD traits are associated with a higher frequency of shame (r = .26), helplessness (−.25), admiration of self (.23), anger turned against the self (.21), and with lower levels of verbal elaboration of sadness (−.22; all correlations significant at p < .10). Results are mostly concordant with the literature, and give support to the idea that a focus on affective experience should enrich our understanding of narcissistic personality characteristics.

Verbal elaboration of distinct affect categories and narcissistic personality disorder features.

Verbal Elaboration of Affect (VEA) is an aspect of mentalization that refers to the transformation of drive-affect experiences. The GEVA (Grille de l'Elaboration Verbale de l'Affect), measures the formal properties of VEA, defined as levels of affect elaboration according to two dimensions: (1) four channels of verbal expression: somatic and motor activity, imagery, and labeling verbalization; (2) five levels of affect tolerance/abstraction: disruptive impulsion, modulated impulsion, externalization, appropriation, and meaning association. The GEVA and the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales are applied to transcripts of a 14-session prematurely terminated psychotherapy. The patient demonstrated an increase in mental elaboration of her negative affects across the sessions. A closer examination, however, reveals that she became less spontaneous and more externalizing, while increasingly adopting the verbal channel. She was also increasingly disavowing in her defensive functioning and spoke less frequently of ...

Assessing verbal elaboration of affect in psychotherapy: a preliminary report and single case study

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Assessing verbal elaboration of affect in psychotherapy: a preliminary report and single case study