Dr. Diamond has recently focused on adapting TFP to meet the special challenges of treating patients with narcissistic disorders, including pathological narcissism (PN) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and those with co-occurring borderline and narcissistic pathology (NPD/BPD), a patient group that is both increasingly prevalent and difficult to engage and treat. Pathological Narcissism (PN) and NPD are complex and prevalent mental disorders that involve significant relationship and work-related deficits and have serious implications for social, political, and organizational life. With her colleagues at the Personality Disorders Institute (PDI), she has developed Transference Focused Psychotherapy for pathological narcissism and NPD, or TFP-N, which is described in their recent book, Treating Pathological Narcissism with Transference Focused Psychotherapy (Guilford Press, 2021).
The book provides an overview of the theory, research, and treatment of patients with PN and NPD from a contemporary object relations perspective that integrates psychodynamic, attachment, and neurocognitive perspectives. Transference Focused Psychotherapy for PN and NPD (TFP-N) is designed to meet the specific challenges of working with patients across the spectrum of personality functioning, from higher level to borderline to those with malignant narcissism, the most severe variant of the disorder. While these patients come to therapy with diverse presentations, a common factor is their retreat from reality into an often illusory grandiosity that makes them particularly difficult to engage in treatment. Treating Pathological Narcissism shows the progression of TFP-N as it helps the patient move from the distorted, unintegrated mental representations underlying narcissistic pathology to the more integrated, realistic concept of self and others that characterizes healthier functioning.
Dr. Diamond has also explored the social and political ramifications of pathological and malignant narcissism as it relates to leaders in government, organizations, and social life.
Publications & Media
Books:
Diamond, D., Yeomans, F.E, Stern, B.L. & Kernberg, O.F. (2021). Treating Pathological Narcissism with Transference Focused Psychotherapy. Guilford Press.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications:
Diamond, D., Yeomans, F., & Keefe, J. R. (2021). Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Pathological Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (TFP-N). Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 49(2), 244-272.
Diamond, D. & Hirsh, R. (2020). Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An Object Relations Approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, 34 (Supplement), 159-176.
Esen, K., Diamond, D., Grinband, J. & Fertuck, E. (2019). Perceptual sensitivity to facial self-perception associated with pathological narcissism. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 36(4),303.
Hörz-Sagstetter, S., Diamond, D., Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., Rentrop, M., Fischer-Kern, M., … & Doering, S. (2018). Clinical characteristics of comorbid narcissistic personality disorder in patients with borderline personality disorder. Journal of personality disorders, 32(4), 562-575. doi: 10.1521/pedi_2017_31_306
Stern, B. L., Diamond, D., & Yeomans, F. (2018). Position Paper—Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) for Narcissistic Personality. Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry, 5(2), 275-289.
Stern, B. L., Diamond, D., Yeomans, F. E. (2017). Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) for narcissistic personality: Engaging patients in the early treatment process. Psychoanalytic Psychology, (34)4, 381-396.doi: 10.1037/pap0000145
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., 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.
Book Chapters:
Diamond, D. (2019). Social and psychological perspectives on narcissism and its disorders. In Doering, S., Hartmann, H. P., & Kernberg, O. F. (Eds.). Narzissmus: Grundlagen-Störungsbilder-Therapie. (pp. 171-204). Klett-Cotta.
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.
Stern, B.L., Yeomans, F., Diamond, D., & Kernberg, O.F. (2012). Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) for narcissistic personality disorder. In J. S. Ogrodniczuk (Ed.), Understanding and treating narcissistic personality disorder (pp. 235 – 252). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.
Diamond, D., Yeomans, F.E., and Levy, K. (2011). Psychodynamic psychotherapy for narcissistic personality disorder. In K. Campbell and J. Miller (Eds.), The handbook of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: Theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and treatment (pp. 423-433). New York: Wiley.
Diamond, D. (2005). Social and psychological perspectives on narcissism and its disorders. In O.F. Kernberg and H.P. Hartmann (Eds), Narzissmus, grundlagen, storungsbilder, therapie (pp. 171-204). Stuttgart, Germany: Schattauer.
Diamond, D. (2005). Narcissism as a psychological and social phenomenon. In J. Auerbach, K. Levy and C. Schaeffer (Eds.), Relatedness, Self-Definition and Mental Representation: Essays in Honor of Sidney J. Blatt (pp. 255-273). New York: Brunner-Routledge 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)
New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NYPSI)
- Transference Focused Psychotherapy for borderline and narcissistic disorders (Part of regular curriculum for psychoanalytic candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and psychotherapy trainees (Spring 2019))