Applied Personality Project

Applied Personality Project

Summary and Analysis

The BBC program produced a podcast on The Life Scientific titled “Peter Fonagy on a Revolution in Mental Health Care. Anna Buckley’s production follows the life of Peter Fonagy and his journey, research, and experience in psychology and psychoanalysis. Fonagy’s research has transformed treatment interventions for thousands of patients with severe mental health disorders. The Podcast released on January 28, 2020, talks about the early childhood of Peter Fonagy as a teenager who experienced challenges in education, was bullied, and thought of how to commit suicide. Therapy saved him, and he later studies clinical psychology and psychoanalysis. The ability to understand an individual’s mental status and the perspectives of feelings and thought-forms the foundation of treating mental health problems. According to Fonagy, the human need to be understood forms the core of human existence about emotions and feelings to help in the mentalization experience. More specifically, the borderline personality disorder represents an example of the mental health issue that requires the intervention of a psychoanalyst to control and treat the symptoms of the condition.

Most importantly, he established the contemporary psychoanalysis guidelines for treating individuals with a borderline personality disorder. The mentalization-based treatment (MBT) denotes a simple and effective treatment of borderline personality disorder, and the defensive mechanisms provide an extensive understanding of the Psychoanalytic personality theory. According to Fonagy, the research on attachment theory between the mother and the child provided significant insights into the knowledge of mentalization-based treatment for mental health problems. To ascertain and demonstrate the practical nature of the MBT intervention, his research focused on randomized control trials in the contemporary approach to mental health problems and borderline personality disorder.

The attachment theory posits that the relationship between the child and the mother is characterized by the social learning of the environment and personality development. Clinical strategy Peter Fonagy trained in did not offer satisfactory intervention in light of clinical psychology and psychoanalysis on mental health care. Measuring the effects of psychotherapy signifies the difficulty of mental health interventions for conceptual importance. Every person has a history of life adversity in the clinical world of psychology. The adversities can develop into a history of trauma for a child if they do not understand the feeling and emotions of the circumstances. In this case, interpreting the mental experience helps to manage the internal sense of emotion control for the children to safeguard their emotional health and protect them from mental health. The foundation of human function in light of severe personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder depends on the mentalization-based treatment that as the foundation for positive mental health outcomes. The community plays a significant role in mental health; psychoanalysis improves the patient’s ability to trust other people in the society that determine the positive health outcomes.

The mentalization-based treatment adopts a stance of understanding the feelings of the patient that validates a common platform of understanding to accentuate the acceptance of the outside perspective. The psychoanalyst creates a picture of the patient’s experience in their minds for them to internalize the perspective by strengthening the capacity of mentalization. Moreover, Fonagy articulates that the mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder depends on the ability of the psychotherapist to convince the patient that they understand their perspective before the patient can consider listening to interventions. Otherwise, adverse experiences during childhood development underpin the success of MBT because the painful experiences require a simple and effective approach to determine the understanding and reflection of the potentially traumatic experiences. The common element of the more than 1400 psychotherapy interventions is the mentalization approach to mental health problems. The straightforward MBT pioneered by Peter Fonagy augments a methodology that goes beyond data and personal experience of the psychoanalyst to accentuate randomized control trials integrated with the community mental health interventions to improve the patient outcomes with severe personality disorders like a borderline personality disorder.

Research Application

Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy conducted an empirical research study on “Impact of Clinical Severity on Outcomes of mentalization-based treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder” for the British Journal of Psychiatry to determine the diminution of severe personality disorder without the intervention of specialized treatment. According to Bateman and Fonagy (2013), borderline personality disorder represents a severe mental disorder that has different intervention outcomes because of the various severity indices for the symptoms. In light of the research question, the empirical study formulated a hypothesis that stated, “Clinical severity indicates a need for specialized treatment of borderline personality disorder” (Bateman & Fonagy, 2013). The background for the empirical research posits that random control trials for severe personality disorder indicate that specialized psychosocial treatments offer effective mental health outcomes compared to the conventional and basic treatments. At the same time, the study lacks adequate evidence that defines the protocols of specialized treatment because of the limitations to the available data and the exclusion of the clinical groups.

Observation studies provide data that show that the treatment interventions for the patients who had no prior experience of physical abuse, substance abuse disorder, and the other cluster B personality disorders show high levels of remissions for the treatment interventions. In light of the hypothesis, the severity indicators for the study viability for borderline personality disorder included symptom distress, comorbidity to other personality disorders, and personality disturbance. Most importantly, the empirical study compared the structured clinical management to the mentalization intervention by utilizing the random clinical trial data on MBT. The criterion excluded the patients with mental illness, psychotic disorder, and the individual with opiate dependence condition.

Methodology

Bateman and Fonagy investigated the hypothesis and the research question for the empirical study by using the randomized control trial registered as ISRCTN27660668 (Bateman & Fonagy, 2013). In this case, the mentalization-based treatment represented the specialized treatment that was used to address the hypothesis. Structured clinical management intervention constituted conventional and routine psychiatric treatments. The criteria for the treatments based on the randomization treated the patients for 18 months and assigned measurement points at intervals of 6 months. In light of the study’s relevance to the popular media podcast, the empirical research used randomized treatments and patients for professional training. Similarly, Peter Fogany’s RCT in the Podcast assesses the treatment paradigms in an 18-month window that randomizes the treatments and patients.

The sampling technique had the inclusion criteria that took patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, suicidal tendencies in the past 6 months, and was between 18 and 65 years. On the same note, the exclusion criteria limited the patients with substance abuse disorders and antisocial personality disorders. After considering the criteria mentioned above, the study found 134 participants with borderline bipolar disorder that employed the structural clinical interviews according to DSM-5 axis disorders to categorize the 71 participants for MBT and 63 participants for SCM (Bateman & Fonagy, 2013). For the statistical analysis, the study used Stata Statistical Software to analyze the data using regression to determine the patterns for the primary outcomes in the 6-month interval. The methodology tested the independent severity variables simultaneously to operate a model of covariant outcomes.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the study informs the content of personality psychology in the Podcast in a way that links the empirical research to the popular media psychoanalysis. Even though the evidence remains limited, the results of the empirical study suggest that borderline personality disorder based on the severity of the symptom and axis comorbidity benefit more from the mentalization-based treatment compared to the structured clinical management. The results postulate that the sophistication of the personality disorder affects the treatment outcome negatively. The conclusion of the empirical study aligns with the popular media podcast because the study confirms that the mentalization-based therapy exhibits beneficial mental health outcomes for patients with a borderline personality disorder. Based on the components of therapy, mentalizing accentuates the primary elements of social function in self-identity and personal relationships. As such, mentalizing offers a wide range of patient outcomes for psychoanalysis and mental process to augment self-direction. The research adds to our understanding of personality assessment that the measurement of personality disorder severity presents insightful ideas into the classification systems for disorders to improve the treatment outcomes and monitor progress in the stepped-care method.

The mentalization-based treatment described in the Podcast uses the perspective of attachment theory to authenticate the etiology of psychoanalytical treatment for borderline personality disorder. Thus, empirical research informs the popular media podcast to understand the personality theory of psychoanalysis pursuant to MBT for borderline personality disorder. Since personality disorder challenges therapeutic interventions, the comparison of SCM and MBT outcomes based on the severity of the symptoms and comorbidity to other personality disorders accentuate the strength of the study. In this case, the strength of the study manifests in the embedded therapeutic relationship between MBT and SCM for borderline personality disorder. Still, the empirical research promulgates the therapeutic stance to the safety paradigms of the treatment interventions to inadvertently predict the effective treatment for personality disorders linked with cluster B syndromes. The conclusion of the research aligns with the podcast message to the extent that mentalization-based treatment produces positive outcomes for borderline personality disorder and remains the foundation that underpins the more than 1400 psychotherapies in the contemporary world of psychoanalysis. In light of the study’s weakness, the research does not integrate a complete meta-analysis paradigm to investigate the moderating variables. The trial utilized several parameters of severity that limited the systematic inquiry hypothesis because the literature on definition did not have cohesion (Bateman & Fonagy, 2013). Lastly, the weakness of the study manifested in the sampling technique that did not have an accurate representation of the patients with borderline personality disorder even though the criteria contained a minimum exclusion parameter.

Connection to Personality Theory

Psychoanalytic Theory

The theory represents the first contemporary personality theory established to influence society by Sigmund Freud. As an intellectual idea, the theory augments the concept of unconsciousness as the foundation for psychoanalytic theory. According to Freud, most human behaviors are caused by thoughts, ideas, as well as wishes registered to the conscious section of the brain. As such, the psychoanalytic theory posits that the personality traits reflect the ideas from the unconscious mind. The psychoanalytic perspective of personality disorder postulates that repression of the adverse experiences forms the basis of the theory in the unconscious mind. In this case, the unconscious represents the biological nature of the human mind that operates to perform the biological functions. Regression locks the undesirable content in the unconscious part of the mind away from the awareness. However, the repressed information manifests via behavior, dreams, and thoughts that disguise their form to desist from disturbing the conscious mind.

The manifestation of the content as motives of the unconscious formulates the cornerstone for treating mental disorders by interpreting the ideas. In light of mental protection, the psychoanalysis theory recommends that the unconscious mind protect human beings in a different way other than repression. These defensive mechanisms provide an extensive understanding of the Psychoanalytic personality theory. The biological drive of the unconscious protects people from the threats of anxiety vis a vis a sense of good. Nonetheless, the defense mechanism can manifest in extreme and aggressive ways to cause abnormalities that cause the development of mental disturbance symptoms. As such, the psychoanalytic theory utilizes clinical therapy to correct and manage the symptom. The approach acts to unravel the content in the unconscious mind so that the patient is exposed to the stimuli that generate the mental disturbance. Denial as a defense mechanism makes a person deny the ideas that cause anxiety. As an aboriginal form of repression, the process of defense mechanism makes the people reject the existence of a problem such as substance abuse. The rationalization defense mechanism protects people from the anxiety of deficiency perception. The rational perspective uses objectivity that protects the mind by citing good reasons. Most importantly, the regression model of mind defense mechanism applies to people with severe trauma and painful experiences to offer calmness and security against threats.

The psychoanalytic theory support and offers an extensive understanding of Peter Fonagy’s Podcast in light of the treatment of the borderline disorder using the mentalization-based treatment (MBT). The mentalization-based treatment (MBT) denotes a simple and effective treatment of borderline personality disorder. According to Fonagy, the research on attachment theory between the mother and the child provides significant insights into the understanding of mentalization-based treatment for mental health problems. The defense mechanism protects people but has the potential to cause mental disturbance based on the experience. In this case, the adverse experiences during childhood development underpin the success of MBT because the painful experiences require a simple and effective approach to determine the understanding and reflection of the potentially traumatic experiences.

For the treatment of borderline personality disorder, the MBT depends on the patient’s ability to mentalize the ideas on the unconscious mind for the psychoanalysis intervention to generate positive mental health outcomes. On the same note, the psychoanalyst creates a picture of the patient’s experience in their minds for them to internalize the perspective by strengthening the capacity of mentalization. The borderline personality disorder embodies a severe public health problem linked to self-harm, pervasive episodes of impulse control, and difficulty in controlling emotions. For the personality disorder, the vulnerability of the mentalizing ability from the perspective of societal and interpersonal interaction forms the core feature of the BPD. Likewise, Fogany articulates that the mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder depends on the ability of the psychotherapist to convince the patient that they understand their perspective before the patient can consider listening to interventions (Buckley, 2020). Overall, the value of the psychoanalytic theory to the borderline personality disorder accentuate the mentalization-based treatment based on the paradigm of the unconscious content and mind defense mechanism that protects people.

Behavioral Theory

John Watson believed that psychology represents a subjective study that required empirical research as well as the scientific methodology to accentuate social and observational learning. The personality theory shifts the focus from the mind and unconscious content to concentrate on the aspects of observation and social learning that can be measured. The behaviorist approach posits that personality develops from learning. By extension, the personality theory uses the analogy of a newborn child as a neutral subject in the context. The child learns the behaviors according to the experience of the world using observation and social learning. Most importantly, human interaction forms the foundation for the development of personality. Burrhus Fredric Skinner was a behavioral experimentalist who set out to search for laws that define personality. From the perspective of behaviorism, BF Skinner believed that behavior is a learned phenomenon affected by situationism.

The social learning from a behaviorism perspective utilizes the findings of experimental research to formulate the principles of personality. In this case, the social setting that accentuates the human interaction and the basic need for people to be understood. On the same note, the observational perspectives of learning suggest that personalities develop when people observe others. As Albert Bandura proposed, observational learning denotes the primary element of personality development. For example, Bandura’s prominent research examined how observational learning influences children when watching films. Most importantly, the behaviorist theory of personality integrates the influential observational learning that articulates the formation of personalities. The tenet of behaviorist theory postulates that personality translates to a hypothetical and abstract concept that accumulates individual behavior in different situations.

The behaviorist theory of personality utilizes empirical research to determine the variables that affect scientific inquiry. The personality theory helps in understanding that empirical research plays a significant role in designing the treatment for personality disorders. In this case, adopting a stance that validates and accepts the patient’s perspective to make the patient feel they have been understood thus convinces them to listen to the therapist. Most notably, conceptual significance of attachment played a significant role in designing the mentalization-based treatment. In this case, the parents who have a history of trauma did not pass on the adversities to their children because the parents had the ability to mentalize, interpret, and internalize the emotions and trauma to keep their minds protected. Peter Fonagy studied and researched Bowlby’s attachment model as a behaviorist theory to help him understand the importance of mentalizing. The mentalization-based treatment described in the Podcast uses the perspective of attachment theory to authenticate the etiology of psychoanalytical treatment for borderline personality disorder. Thus, the empirical research informs the popular media podcast to understand the personality theory of psychoanalysis pursuant to MBT for borderline personality disorder. The attachment theory based on the observation that the relationship between the child and the mother is characterized by observation of the environment and personality development. The value of behaviorist theory manifests in the context of the Podcast based on the role of the community to produce positive mental health outcomes. The behaviorist theory depends on human interaction and observatory learning that helps the community influence the mental health outcomes for the patients.

Humanist Theory

Modern psychology utilizes the humanistic theory of personality established by Carl Rodgers and Abraham Maslow. The personality theory uses the element of positive psychology to promote the idea of self-actualization as a motivation that drives human beings. Moreover, self-actualization signifies a form of self-identity that develops into the inner personality. According to Maslow, the eventual goal for personality development is self-actualization organized in a humanistic pyramid of pre-potent need to reach the level of self-fulfillment. As a counseling psychologist, Carl Rodgers conceptualized a personality theory around the outlook of self-concept. The theory stipulated that people have an inner concept; they consider ideal selves that constitute the personality of the real selves. In this case, the concept of self-actualization involves the attempt to find common ground between the ideal self and the real self. The therapeutic style of Carl Rodger accentuates an epitome of self-discovery to manifest the true personality based on self-concept and the feelings to embrace the personality of the inner self. The humanist theory tenets have instigated a populist and a lasting imprint on contemporary psychology in light of applied psychology and counseling. This is because the personality model adopts positive psychology that explores the scientific and empirical methods to investigate the congruence between self-actualization, happiness, as well as optimism.

The humanist personality theory offers an alternative understanding of the Podcast produced by Anna Buckley in the sense that the popular media content uses a psychoanalytic and behaviorist perspective to describe the understanding of mental health disorders. The personality theory of Rodgers and Maslow proposes the use of the conscious mind instead of on the unconscious mind used in psychoanalysis because the conscious mind influences the rational decisions and the understanding of inner self. According to Fonagy, the human need to be understood forms the core of human existence about emotions and feelings to help in the mentalization experience. The humanist theory augments an alternative understanding of the need people to understand an individual. In the case of the Rogerian school of thought, the basic need to be understood would not be necessary if a person has a deeper conception of the self to instigate self-discovery. Otherwise, the humanist theory provides value to the treatment of borderline personality disorder by offering a different perspective that uses the rationale of a conscious mind.

Personal Relevance

In the account of personal reflection, the need to be understood present a sense of satisfaction that rivals the concept of humanistic personality. This phenomenon accentuates the ability to understand an individual’s mental status and the perspectives of feelings and thought-forms the foundation of treating mental health problems. The material remains relevant from a personal perspective because managing emotions, experiences, ideas, and thoughts have an overwhelming effect on wellbeing and require mentalization technique. The lesson to be learnt from the popular media podcast is that the mentalization-based treatment, a simple and effective intervention, has revolutionized the world of mental health care. However, the most important mental health intervention is community intervention; psychoanalysis improves the patient’s ability to trust other people in the society that determine the positive health outcomes.

The background for the empirical research posits that random control trials for severe personality disorder indicate that specialized psychosocial treatments offer effective mental health outcomes compared to the conventional and basic treatments. The mentalization-based treatment described in the Podcast uses the perspective of attachment theory to authenticate the etiology of psychoanalytical treatment for borderline personality disorder. The popular media podcast by Anna Buckley has reinstated a question for debate based on opinion on the scientific study and empirical research for psychology. The possibility of having a science of psychology presents irresolvable debates. However, the Podcast has enabled the formation of new opinions about personality psychology to accentuate the scientific nature of psychology underpinning randomized studies and empirical research. The empirical observations, hypotheses, and the systematic investigation in the search for effective mental health treatment establish a correlation between science and psychology.

The practical value of understanding personality research theory from a life perspective helps in understanding other people and ourselves by providing a valid way to reflect the views in social interaction. To understand personality requires a practical approach to manage people, and influence the situations of decision-making. The application of personality theory and research has the potential to contribute to the learning outcome and strategy by considering the information behavior. In this case, the application helps to elaborate on the strengths and weaknesses in the course of social interaction.

The concerns about the personality research following the increase in evidence that personality plays a significant role in patient outcomes with mental disorders manifest in the little knowledge about the processes that determine how personality traits shape a person’s functioning. In the mental health domain, personality processes have the potential to influence the outcome, but the empirical evidence remains inconclusive. While environmental factors play a huge role in influencing mental health outcomes, the relationship with personality in social context reflects the skeptic correlation based on the humanist personality theory. For empirical research, it does not integrate a complete meta-analysis paradigm to investigate the moderating variables. The trial utilized several parameters of severity that limited the systematic inquiry hypothesis because the literature on definition did not have the cohesion to create bias. The identification measure used to infer traits for behavioral parameters has broad definitions for multiple traits. As such, the practical practice of quantifying measurements with personality traits presents an overarching problem for the randomized clinical trials for psychoanalysis.

References

Buckley, A. (Producer BBC Radio 4). (2020, January 28). The Life Scientific. Peter Fonagy on a revolution in mental health care [Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dpj2.

Bateman, A., & Fonagy, P. (2010). Mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder. World Psychiatry, 9(1), 11.

Bateman, A., & Fonagy, P. (2013). Impact of clinical severity on outcomes of mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 203(3), 221-227.