The Mental Functioning Axis of the<i>Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual</i>: An Adolescent Case Study

Abstract

We describe the assessment of a troubled adolescent boy to demonstrate the use of the Shedler–Westen Assessment Profile for Adolescents (Westen, Dutra, & Shedler, 2005 Westen, D., Dutra, L. and Shedler, J. 2005. Assessing adolescent personality pathology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 186: 227–238. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]) and the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global (Westen, 1995 Westen, D. 1995. Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale: Q-sort for projective stories (SCORS–Q), Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Unpublished manuscript [Google Scholar]) to formulate the Mental Functioning for Children and Adolescents Axis (MCA) of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM Task Force, 2006 PDM Task Force. 2006. Psychodynamic diagnostic manual, Silver Spring, MD: Alliance of Psychoanalytic Organizations. [Google Scholar]). The assessment made possible a meaningful psychodynamic therapy.