Personality organisation and mentalisation in group of individuals with alcohol use disorder

Abstract

Introduction and objective: The personality organisation model proposed by Otto F. Kernberg allows for describing an individual at different levels of personality organisation: healthy/neurotic and higher/moderate/low borderline. It is assumed that there is a correlation between an individual’s ability to mentalise and the level of personality organisation. The aim of the study was to find out whether there is a relationship between personality organisation and the ability to mentalise in a group of alcohol-dependent individuals. Materials and methods: The research was conducted in a group of 91 alcohol-dependent individuals. The mean age of the respondents was 43.50 years (standard deviation, SD = 12.90). The research used the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) by John F. Clarkin, Pamela A. Foelsch and Otto F. Kernberg, the Mentalization Scale by Aleksandar Dimitrijević et al., the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test published by the Polish Agency for the Identification of Alcohol-Related Problems and an original sociodemographic questionnaire. Results: The study showed significant correlations between different aspects of personality organisation and mentalisation. The higher the severity of abnormalities in personality organisation, the lower the ability to mentalise. Alcohol-dependent men and women were also shown to differ significantly in their ability to mentalise, intensity of aggression and moral values. Conclusions: The study showed that the ability to mentalise in alcohol-dependent individuals decreases with increasing deficits in personality organisation, which seems to be relevant for the design of therapeutic interventions.