Open Seminar

Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies

University of Essex

Friday 11 February 2011

Open Seminar (Southend Campus)

Emotional Development: Putting ‘Personality Disorder’ on the map (Rex Haigh)

Abstract: The talk will be an explanation of disturbance of emotional development – what is needed for normal and healthy ‘primary emotional development’, what can go wrong with that, and what we can do about it as therapy in ‘secondary emotional development’. I’ll use a ‘tube map’ we have developed at the Department of Health to illustrate it and explain how we are hoping to develop that into an online interactive tool, in partnership with service user organisations. If I have time I will propose some radical rethinking about the disputed territory between ‘complex PTSD’, ‘borderline personality disorder’ and ‘bipolar disorder’.


Rex Haigh is a consultant psychiatrist in Berkshire, clinical advisor to the National Personality Disorder Development Programme, and founder of the ‘Community of Communities’ quality network at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is involved with several 3rd sector organisations including Exclusion Link CIC, Emergence CIC, the Association of Therapeutic Communities, Community Housing and Therapy, the Society for Psychotherapy Research and the British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorder. He has written and published numerous articles about therapeutic communities and personality disorder, and is co-editor of both the Jessica Kingsley “Community, Culture and Change” book series and the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities.

The Open Seminars all take place in Southend Lecture Room 5 at 5:30pm.

All Welcome

T 01206 873640 E cpsadmin@essex.ac.uk www.essex.ac.uk/centres/psycho