The course aims to illustrate adolescent psychopathology by especially highlighting the diagnostic process leading to case formulation, in order to combine the complexity of clinical observation with the use of valid and reliable tools in this specific developmental stage. Diagnostic assessment, with emphasis on personality and its disorders, will be treated in the broader context of dynamic psychopathology. The main classification systems of mental disorders, with particular attention to the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-Second Edition, PDM-2 (Section "Adolescence"), as well as the most recent assessment procedures of personality and psychological and relational functioning (including the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure; SWAP-200-A and SWAP-II-A), will be presented. Finally, the role of the therapeutic alliance and other intersubjective dimensions that characterize the relationship between clinician and adolescent will be explored.  

 

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, the student will have acquired the necessary and most up-to-date knowledge to: a) navigate the different diagnostic models in the assessment of personality and psychopathology in adolescence; and b) select the most appropriate assessment methods according to different clinical and research contexts.

 

Lab Objectives

During the course, special attention will be given to the discussion of clinical cases and semi-structured interviews, survey tools and techniques will be applied, designed to promote the acquisition of professionalizing skills in the field of interviewing and diagnostic psychodynamic assessment of adolescents.