LINGIARDI, SHEDLER, GAZZILLOASSESSING PERSONALITY CHANGE WITH THE SWAP–200 CLINICAL CASE APPLICATIONS Assessing Personality Change in Psychotherapy With the SWAP–200: A Case Study

Many studies document the efficacy of psychotherapy for acute syndromes such as depression, but less is known about personality change in patients treated for personality pathology. The Shedler–Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP–200; Westen & Shedler, 1999a, 1999b) is an assessment tool that measures a broad spectrum of personality constructs and is designed to bridge the gap between the clinical and empirical traditions in personality assessment. In this article, we demonstrate the use of the SWAP–200 as a measure of change in a case study of a patient diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. We collected assessment data at the start of treatment and after 2 years of psychotherapy. The findings illustrate the personality pro-cesses targeted in intensive psychotherapy for borderline personality. There is often a schism between clinical and empirical ap-proaches to personality assessment. Researchers tend to fo-cus on relatively small numbers of variables that can be mea-sured using structured assessment methods (e.g., structured research interviews or psychometric inventories). The goal is generally to determine whether the person meets diagnosti