Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT): Application to a Long-Term Therapy Case of Borderline Personality Disorder

Impairments in metacognitive capacity—or the processes that enable individuals to access, understand, and integrate their ideas about their own and others’ mental states—are a core barrier to recovery for many people with borderline personality disorder. Although therapeutic approaches that focus on metacognitive capacity are emerging, few deal with the concept of recovery at a foundational level. This article describes how a form of metacognitively oriented psychotherapy focused on recovery, metacognitive reflection and insight therapy (MERIT), assisted a patient with borderline personality disorder and initial metacognitive deficits to develop a complex understanding of himself and others and then to use that knowledge to act as an agent in the world and effectively respond to life challenges. The eight elements of MERIT that stimulate and promote metacognitive capacity are presented with an emphasis on how they were implemented to assist the patient in achieving recovery.