Description

To explore the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Evolutionary Systems Therapy, the present study includes three actions. In the first action investigators enroll 6 adolescents (16-19 years) with personality disorders, in the second 15 young adults (20-25 years) with personality disorders. All participants receive 6 months of psychotherapy. The two subsamples of patients (adolescents and young adults) are assessed based on the conceptualization model of Evolutionary Systems Therapy which envisages three macro-organizations of personality (consistently with dimensional and hierarchical models such as Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology): internalizing, externalizing, schizotypal. Investigators plan to recruit patients until the size of the sub-samples is reached (15 young adults divided into 3 groups of 5 patients, each for each of the three interpersonal patterns; 6 adolescents divided into 3 groups of 2 patients, each for each of the three patterns interpersonal). In the third action, an ecological momentary assessment study will investigate the consistency over time between the conceptualization model and the experiences of the young adult patients enrolled: investigators will explore whether the hypothesized conceptualization will be confirmed by collected data on the patients' interpersonal styles.