Throughout her career, Dr. Diamond has conducted clinical research in a number of areas, including 1) attachment and mentalization in patients with personality disorders and the way they change over the course of psychodynamic treatment; 2) the assessment of mental representations; 3) separation-individuation in individuals and families; 4) the relationship between insecure and maladaptive attachment representations and negative affective style in severely disturbed (borderline and psychotic) adolescents and their families; and 5) the impact of pathological narcissism on the treatment process and outcomes of patients with personality disorders.
A major focus of Dr. Diamond’s research and clinical work has involved exploring how attachment theory and research may illuminate aspects of the therapeutic process and relationship. Her particular focus is on the application of attachment theory and research to the understanding and treatment of individuals, couples, and families. She has authored or co-authored many articles and book chapters on attachment theory and psychoanalysis, mental representation, attachment organization and the therapeutic relationship and process, and attachment and psychopathology. She has also adapted the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to explore attachment and mentalization in the patient-therapist relationship in the Patient Therapist Adult Attachment Interview or (PT-AAI). She has participated in many presentations, panels, and workshops on attachment theory and research at The American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association.
She is currently a Co-principal Investigator with Eric Fertuck, Ph.D. (Principal investigator) on a study funded by the American Psychoanalytic Association, The Impact of Transference Focused Psychotherapy on Pathological Narcissism: The Validity of Attachment Dimensions as Proxies for Structural Personality Change. This grant is part of an active research protocol at Weill-Cornell, Department of Psychiatry, entitled “Predictors of Change in Borderline Pathology Through Transference-Focused Psychotherapy” (Principal Investigator: John Clarkin, Ph.D.). This study examines the nature of the predictors of different facets of change in BPD patients through TFP, and brings together state-of-the-art psychotherapy, and neurocognitive, attachment, and genetic methodologies in the study of the effects of TFP on borderline pathology. Dr. Diamond also co-leads one of the study supervision groups for TFP research therapists and trains research assistants in administering the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI).
Publications & Media
Books:
Diamond, D., Blatt, S., and Lichtenberg, J. (Eds.) (2007). Attachment and Sexuality. New York: Analytic Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Doane, J.A. & Diamond, D. (1994). Affect and Attachment in the Family: A Family Based Treatment of Major Psychiatric Disorder. New York: Basic Books. Italian translation: (1995). Affetti e attaccamento nella famiglia: Trattamento amiliare dei piugravi disturbi psichiatrici. Italian edition, Raffaello Cortina Editore.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications:
Diamond, D. & Keefe, J.R. (2024). Separation anxiety: The core of attachment and separation-individuation. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 77(1), 251-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.2023.2284588.
Diamond, D., Keefe, J. R., Hörz-Sagstetter, S., Fischer-Kern, M., Doering, S., & Buchheim, A. (2023). Changes in Attachment Representation and Personality Organization in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 76(1), 31-38.
Buchheim, A., & Diamond, D. (2018). Attachment and borderline personality disorder. Psychiatric Clinics, 41(4), 651-668.
Diamond, D., Levy, K. N., Clarkin, J. F., Fischer-Kern, M., Cain, N. M., Doering, S., Hörz, S., & Buchheim, A. (2014). Attachment and mentalization in female patients with comorbid narcissistic and borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5(4), 428–433. doi:10.1037/per0000065.
Diamond, D. & Meehan, K.B. (2013). Attachment and object relations in patients with narcissistic personality disorder: Implications for therapeutic process and outcome. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(11), 1148-1159.
Diamond D. (2012). Sexuality and attachment in patients with severe narcissistic personality disorders. Implications for therapeutic process and outcome. Persönlichkeitsstörunge, 16, 49–67.
Diamond, D. (2004). Attachment disorganization: The reunion of attachment theory and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 21(2), 276.
Diamond, D., Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., Meehan, K. B., Cain, N. M., Yeomans, F. E., & Kernberg, O. F. (2014). Change in attachment and reflective function in borderline patients with and without comorbid narcissistic personality disorder in transference focused psychotherapy. Contemporary psychoanalysis, 50(1-2), 175-210.
Diamond, D., Stovall-McClough, C., Clarkin, J. F., & Levy, K. N. (2003). Patient-therapist attachment in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 67(3: Special Issue), 227-259. (Paper included in the Single Case Archive (www.singlecasearchive.com)).
Diamond, D., Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., Levine, H., & Foelsch, P. (2002). The clinical implications of current attachment research for interventions with borderline patients. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 2(4), 121-149.
Diamond, D., Heinicke, C., & Mintz, J. (1996). Separation‐individuation as a family transactional process in the transition to parenthood. Infant Mental Health Journal: Official Publication of The World Association for Infant Mental Health, 17(1), 24-42.
Diamond, D., & Doane, J. A. (1994). Disturbed Attachment and Negative Affective Style an Intergenerational Spiral. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 164(6), 770-781.
Doane, J. A., HILL, W. L., & Diamond, D. (1991). A developmental view of therapeutic bonding in the family: Treatment of the disconnected family. Family Process, 30(2), 155-175
Diamond, D., Kaslow, N., Coonerty, S., & Blatt, S. J. (1990). Changes in separation-individuation and intersubjectivity in long-term treatment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7(3), 363.
Book Chapters:
Diamond, D, Clarkin, J.F, Levy, K.N., Meehan, K.B., Cain, N.M., Kernberg, O.F., Yeomans, F., & Stern, B. (2018). Change in attachment and reflective function in borderline patients with and without co-morbid narcissistic personality disorder in Transference Focused Psychotherapy. In A. Fossati & S. Barroni (Eds), Il narcisismo patologico: Aspetti clinici e forensic [Pathological Narcissism, clinical and forensic issues] (pp. 49-79). Milan: Raffaello Cortina.
Diamond, D. & Blatt, S. J. (2016). The attachment patterns of therapists: Impact on treatment alliance, therapeutic process and outcome. In L. Gunsberg & S. G. Hershberg (Eds.), Psychoanalytic theory, research, and clinical practice: Reading Joseph D. Lichtenberg (pp. 237-249). London & New York: Routledge.
Kernberg, O.F., Diamond, D., Yeomans, F., Clarkin, J. & Levy, K. (2008). Mentalization and attachment in borderline patients in Transference Focused Psychotherapy. In E. Jurist, A. Slade, and S. Bergner (Eds), Mind to Mind: Infant research, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis (pp. 167-198). New York: Other Press.
Diamond, D., Yeomans, F., Clarkin, J., and Levy, K. (2008). The reciprocal impact of attachment and transference-focused psychotherapy with borderline patients. In H. Steele and M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the Adult Attachment Interview (pp. 339-385). New York: Guilford Press.
Diamond, D. and Yeomans, F. (2007). Oedipal love and conflict in the transference/countertransference matrix: its impact on attachment security and mentalization. In D. Diamond, J. Lichtenberg, and S. Blatt (Eds), Attachment and sexuality (pp. 201-255). New Jersey: Analytic Press.
Diamond, D. and Kotov, K. (2003). The representational world of the mother in psychoanalytic and attachment theory. In D. Mendell and P. Turrini (Eds), The internal world of the mother (pp. 117-147). Madison, CT: Psychosocial Press.
Diamond, D., Clarkin, J., Stovall-McClough, C., Levy, K., Foelsch, P., Levine, H. & Yeomans, F. (2002). Patient-therapist attachment: impact on therapeutic process and outcome. In M. Cortina and M. Marone (Eds.), Attachment theory and the psychoanalytic process (pp. 127-178). New York: Guilford Press.
Diamond, D. & Blatt, S.J. (1994). Internal working models of attachment and psychoanalytic theories of the representational world: A comparison and critique. In M. Sperling & W. Berman (Eds.), Attachment in Adults: Clinical and Developmental Perspectives (pp. 72-97). New York: Guilford Press.
Courses:
New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
- An object relations approach to treating narcissistic Disorders: Transference Focused Psychotherapy for Narcissistic Pathology (Spring 2018 to present). (Includes a unit on pathological narcissism and attachment).