Psychodynamic treatments of self-injury

The authors address psychodynamic therapies, particularly transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), in the treatment of patients who present with non-suicidal self-injury. In doing so, they briefly discuss various psychodynamic approaches with empirical evidence for their effectiveness. They describe TFP, including its treatment rationale, putative change mechanisms, and outcome research. They then present a case illustration of a patient with borderline personality disorder who engages in non-suicidal self-injury to demonstrate how TFP can be applied to such cases.