The core conflictual relationship theme of psychotic, borderline, and neurotic personality organizations

Kernberg's (1984) model of personality describes 3 personality organization s (POs)-psychotic, borderline, and neurotic-each of which has specific char acteristics in terms of relationship schemas, defense mechanisms, identity diffusion, and reality testing. The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CC RT) method (Luborsky, 1998a) is a measure of central relationship schemas a s revealed by relationship narratives. It identifies 3 components: the pati ent's wishes (Ws), the responses from others (ROs), and the responses of se lf (RSs). The goals of this study were to compare 2 methods for scoring ROs and RSs and to examine whether different POs vary in terms of their relati onship schemas as measured by the CCRT. Eighty-one participants were includ ed in this study. A PO diagnosis was made with the Personality Organization Diagnostic Form (Diguer & Normandin, 1997). Results showed that both scori ng methods a ere equivalent in all dimensions. We found more similarities t han differences between the 3 PO groups with respect to Ws, ROs, and RSs. T he psychotic PO group presented the flattest CCRT profiles, the least negat ive responses, and the lowest narrative complexity. These results are discu ssed in relation to Kernberg's model and the development of the CCRT method .