Kenneth N. Levy, Ph.D., Task Force Co-Chair (Level I)

 Kenneth N. Levy, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University.  He received his Ph..D. from City University of New York in 1999.

Ken is a broadly trained clinical psychologist whose research interests bridge the areas of social, personality, and developmental psychology. His research focuses on attachment theory, emotion regulation, personality disorders, and psychotherapy process and outcome.

Recent projects have examined the relationship between adult attachment organization (including mentalization) and personality disorders, neural and neurocognitive aspects of attachment and personality disorders, as well as psychotherapy process and outcome in the treatment of personality disorders. Current projects examine mechanisms of change in psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder, the contextual and personality factors that influence post-treatment adjustment in patients with borderline personality disorder, the influence of attachment and representation on stress reactivity in patients with borderline personality disorder, and the developmental precursors of personality problems in children of parents with personality disorders.

He and his students pursue this research in their laboratory at Penn State and also in collaboration with colleagues at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical Center.

Recent Publications:

Levy, K. N., Reynoso, J., Wasserman, R. H., & Clarkin, J. F. (in press). Narcissistic personality disorder. In W. O’Donohue & S. O. Lillenfeld (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Personality Disorders. Sage.

Levy, K. N., Ellison, W. D., & Scott, L. N. (in press). Personality Disorders. Encyclopedia of Counseling (Vol. 2). Sage Publications.

Levy, K. N. & Kelly, K. M. (in press). Assessment using interviews. In J. H. Obegi & E. Berant (Eds.), Clinical Applications of Adult Attachment. New York: Guilford.

Levy, K. N. & Yeomans, F. E. (in press). Psychodynamic approaches for treating self-injury. Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Critchfield, K. L., Levy, K. N., Clarkin, J. F., & Kernberg, O. F. (in press). The relational context of aggression in borderline personality disorder: Using adult attachment style to predict forms of hostility. Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Critchfield, K. L., Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., & Kernberg, O. F. (in press). Organization of co-occurring Axis II features in borderline personality disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Clarkin, J. F., Lenzenweger, M. F., Yeomans, F. E., & Kernberg, O.F., & Levy, K. N. (in press). An object relations model of borderline pathology. Journal of Personality Disorders.

Yeomans, F. E., Clarkin, J. F., Diamond, D., & Levy, K. N., (in press). An object relations treatment of borderline patients with reflective functioning as a mechanism of change. Psychoanalytic Inquiry.

Levy, K. N., Edell, W. S. & McGlashan, T. H. (2007). Depressive experiences in inpatient with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatric Quarterly, 78, 129-143.

Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., Lenzenweger, M. F., & Kernberg, O. F. (2007). A mulitwave RCT: Evaluating three treatments for borderline personality disorder. American Journal Psychiatry, 164, 922-928.

Critchfield, K. L, Levy, K. N., & Clarkin, J. F. (2007). The Personality Disorders Institute/Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation randomized control trial for borderline personality disorder: Reliability of Axis I and II diagnoses. Psychiatric Quarterly, 78, 15-24.

Levy, K. N., Kelly, K. M., Meehan, K. B., Reynoso, J. S., Weber, M., Clarkin, J. F., & Kernberg, O. F. (2006). Change in attachment patterns and reflective function in a randomized control trial of transference focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 1027-1040.

Levy, K. N., Clarkin, J. F., Yeomans, F.E., Scott, L. N., Wasserman, R. H., & Kernberg, O. H. (2006). The mechanisms of change in the treatment of borderline personality disorder with transference focused psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 481-501.

Levy, K. N., Kelly, K. M., & Jack, E. L. (2006). Sex differences in jealousy: A matter of evolution style or attachment history? In M. Mikulincer & G. Goodman (Eds.), Dynamics of romantic love: Attachment, caregiving, and sex (pp. 128-145). New York: Guilford Press.

Levy, K. N., & Scott, L. N. (2006). Other personality disorders. In M. Hersen & J. Thomas (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Personality and Psychopathology: Volume II: Adult Psychopathology (pp. 316-336). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Auerbach, J. S., Levy, K. N., & Schaffer, C. E. (2005). Relatedness, Self-Definition, and Mental Representations: Essays in Honor of Sidney J. Blatt. London: Brunner-Routledge.

Levy, K. N. (2005). The implications of attachment theory and research for understanding borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 959-986.

Weinberger, J., & Levy, K. N. (2005). Psychology. In E. S. Person, A. Cooper, G. Gabbard (Eds.), Textbook of Psychoanalysis (pp. 463-477). American Psychiatric Press.

Clarkin, J. F., Yeomans, F. E., & Levy, K. N. (2005). Psychodynamic psychotherapies. In J. Oldham, A. Skodol, & D. Bender (Eds.), Textbook of Personality Disorders (pp. 275-288). American Psychiatric Press.

Beutler, L., Blatt, S. J., Alimohamed, S., Levy, K. N., & Angtuaco, L. (2005). Participant factors in treatment of conditions with dysphoria. In L. Beutler & L.G. Castonguay (Eds.), Empirically Defined Principles of Therapeutic Change (pp. 13-63). Oxford University Press. Co-sponsored by the Society of Clinical Psychology (APA, Division 12) and the North American Society for Psychotherapy Research.

Levy, K. N., Meehan, K. B., Auerbach, J. S., & Blatt, S. J. (2005). Concept of the object on the rorschach scale. In Bornstein, R. F. & Masling, J. M. (Eds.), Scoring the Rorschach: Seven Validated Systems (pp. 97-133). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., & Schavi, J. (2005). Transference focused psychotherapy: Development of a psychodynamic treatment for severe personality disorders. Clinical Neuroscience Research, 4, 379-386.

Critchfield, K. L, Levy, K. N., & Clarkin, J. F. (2004). The relationship between impulsivity, aggression, and impulsive-aggression in borderline personality disorder: An empirical analysis of self-report measures. Journal of Personality Disorders, 18, 555-570.

Clarkin, J. F., Levy, K. N., Lenzenweger, M., & Kernberg, O. F. (2004). The Personality Disorders Institute/Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation randomized control trial for borderline personality disorder: Rationale and methods. Journal of Personality Disorders, 18 (1), 52-72.

Posner, M. I., Rothbart, M. K., Vizueta, N., Thomas, K., Levy, K. N., Fossella, J., Silbersweig, D., Stern, E., Clarkin, J. F., & Kernberg, O. F. (2003). An approach to the psychobiology of personality disorders. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 1093-1006.

Blatt, S. J. & Levy, K. N. (2003). Attachment theory, psychoanalysis, personality development, and psychopathology. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 23, 104-152.

Clarkin, J. F. & Levy, K. N. (2003). A psychodynamic treatment for severe personality disorders: Issues in treatment development. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 23, 248-267.

Clarkin, J. F., & Levy, K. N. (2003). Influence of client variables on psychotherapy. In M. Lambert (Ed.), Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (5th ed.). New York: Wiley & Sons.

Posner, M. I., Rothbart, M. K., Vizueta, N., Levy, K. N., Thomas, K., & Clarkin, J. F. (2002). Attentional mechanisms of borderline personality disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 99, 16366-16370.

Clarkin, J. F., Foelsch, P. A., Levy, K. N., Hull, J., Delaney, J. C., & Kernberg, O. F. (2001). The development of a psychodynamic treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder: A preliminary study of behavioral change. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 487-495.

Levy, K. N., & Blatt, S. J. (1999). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis: Further differentiation within insecure attachment patterns. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19, 541-575.

Levy, K. N., Becker, D. F., Grilo, C. M., Mattanah, J. J. F., Garnet, K. E., Quinlan, D. M., Edell, W. S., & McGlashan, T. H. (1999). Concurrent and predictive validity of the personality disorder diagnosis in adolescent inpatients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1522-1528.

Levy, K. N., Blatt, S. J., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Attachment styles and parental representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 407-419.

Blatt. S. J. & Levy, K. N. (1998). A psychodynamic approach to the diagnosis of psychopathology. In J. W. Barron (Ed.), Making Diagnosis Meaningful: Enhancing Evaluation and Treatment of Psychological Disorders (pp. 73-109). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.

Blatt, S. J., Auerbach, J. S., & Levy, K. N. (1997). Mental representations in personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process. Review of General Psychology, 1, 351-374.