Group psychotherapy with borderline patients: Contrasting remainers and dropouts

Borderline patients present major treatment difficulties in almost every treatment modality. The reason borderlines drop out or fail to benefit from therapy are obscure. Some findings points to the important factor of therapist and patient fit. In the present study, two therapy groups with borderline patients were followed for 20 months. In the study, the therapists were found to individualize the process and their interventions were found to be unevenly distributed among future remainers and dropouts especially during periods of group instability. The results were interpreted along with the Pygmalion hypothesis, that is, that the fit and the therapists' perceived trustworthiness were crucial factors for group psychotherapy outcome for borderline patients.