Personality Disorders

• Personality is an individual’s patterns of perceiving, relating to and thinking about the environment and oneself.
  • Ego-syntonic (Patients do not think they have a problem.)
    • OCD vs OCPD
  • Personality fully develops after becoming a young adult. So, these conditions are not diagnosed in children and adolescents.
    • Antisocial vs conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder


• A personality disorder is diagnosed when a personality trait causes impaired function.
  • People with personality disorders mostly use immature defense mechanisms.


• Classification
  • Cluster A: Odd and eccentric
    • Paranoid: distrustful
    • Schizoid: detachment from social relationships, restricted range of emotion
    • Schizotypal: odd behavior
  • Cluster B: Dramatic, emotional, erratic
    • Antisocial: violate rights of others
    • Borderline: unstable relationships, history of self-harm
    • Histrionic: attention seeking
    • Narcissistic: grandiose, lack of empathy
  • Cluster C: Anxious, fearful
    • Obsessive-Compulsive: perfectionism
    • Avoidant: feeling of inadequacy
    • Dependent: fear of losing social support