Abstract
An individual’s awareness of their own and others’ emotional experience is a key construct in several psychotherapy models, including for clients with personality disorders. Research into emotional awareness in personality disorders and their treatment has been scarce, yet it seems important to understand how these processes change in psychotherapy and how this change explains symptom reduction, in particular by conceptualizing situation-bound fluctuations of emotional awareness. In this current perspective article, we establish a theoretical consensus on models of emotional awareness and discuss current open research questions related to emotional awareness in clients with personality disorders. We conclude with the hypothesis that increased emotional awareness is a central mechanism of change in psychotherapies for personality disorders.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 339-354 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Personality Disorders |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2025 |
Keywords
- dynamic change
- emotional awareness
- personality disorder
- process
- psychotherapy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health