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Mental representations of self and significant others during hospitalization-based clinical psychotherapy
The Differentiation-Relatedness Scale (DRS) as scored on the Object Relations Inventory (ORI) assesses [a] the level of differentiation (i.e. differentiation of self from others and the integration of a sense of self) and [b] relatedness (i.e the establishment of increasingly mature levels of interpersonal functioning) in mental representations of self and significant others. The current research is embedded within a naturalistic process-outcome study at KLIPP. In particular, this study focuses on changes in mental representations of self and significant others (mother, father and therapist) in patients with personality disorder (PD) during hospitalization-based clinical psychotherapy treatment. Here the results of two studies are summarized. The first study included 35 PD patients who completed the ORI and other measures at intake, three, six and nine months into treatment, at discharge, and at three-month and one-year follow-up. The second study investigated change in the levels of differentiation and relatedness of object representations from intake to treatment termination in 68 PD patients. Results of both studies showed significant improvements in levels of DRS between intake and discharge. In particular, PD patients moved from mental representations characterized by polarization and the use of splitting on the DRS (DRS level = 5) to emergent object constancy and ambivalence tolerance, and thus to more stable and coherent mental representations of both self and significant others (DRS level = 6). Importantly, improvements in mental representations of self as well as mother, father and therapist were maintained at follow-up.