EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE-ANALYTICAL THERAPY ON EGO-STRENGTH AND OBJECT RELATIONS OF PERSONS WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Ego-strength and object relations are key concepts in the psychoanalytic approach
which are important in the etiology of borderline personality disorder. Therefore, the present study was
conducted with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive-analytical therapy on ego-strength
and object relations of persons with borderline personality disorder.
Materials & Methods: This research was a semi-experimental and pretest- posttest design with the
control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all men (N=70) with borderline
personality disorder admitted to Isar Psychiatric Hospital and psychiatry section of Fatemi Hospital in
2017 in Ardabil city. The research sample consisted of 30 men with borderline personality disorder
selected by convenience sampling and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups.
Data collection tools in this study included structured clinical interviews for diagnosis of axis II
disorders, Millon clinical multiaxial inventory, psychological inventory ego strength and Bell Object
Relations Scale. Pretest and posttest were performed from both groups. Data were analyzed by
multivariate analysis of covariance analysis and in SPSS 23 statistical software.
Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean posttest scores of
both groups in both ego-strength and object relations variables (p<0/05).
Conclusion: Cognitive-analytical therapy is a suitable strategy for improving the ego-strength and
object relationships of persons with borderline personality disorder and can be used as an effective
intervention method