Types of Personality Disorders

January 6, 2015 by Jasonbocabil Leave a comment

Personality Disorders and their Major Features:

1. Paranoid Personality. This is characterized by suspiciousness, hypersensitivity, rigidity, envy, excessive self-importance, and argumentativeness plus a tendency to blame others for one’s own mistakes and failures and to ascribe evil motives to others.
2. Schizoid Personality. Individuals with this personality disorder neither deserve nor enjoy close relationship. They live a solitary life with a little interest in developing friendships. They exhibit emotional coldness, detachment, or a constricted affect. Because patients with schizoid personality disorder may feel threatened if the physician attempts to become close, these patients should be treated in a formal manner.
3. Schizotypal Personality. Individuals with this type of personality disorder exhibit odd behavior, thoughts, appearance, and extreme discomfort to social situations.
4. Histrionic Personality. This is characterized by attempt to be the center of attention through theatrical and self-dramatizing behavior. Sexual adjustment is poor and interpersonal relationships are stormy. The physician should treat these patients in a professional manner because they tend to eroticize any relationship.
5. Narcissistic Personality. Individuals with this type of personality have a pervasive sense of self importance. They are preoccupied by fantasies of unlimited success, power, and they often demand excessive admiration and attention. Concurrently, they lack empathy and are unwilling to recognize or identify with the needs of others. They appear arrogant and haughty. These patients may threaten the physician and devaluate her competence. It is useful for physician to recognize this style and not become threatened or angry.
6. Antisocial Personality. This is characterized by a lifelong history of inability to conform to social norms. They are irritable and aggressive; impulsive need gratification and lack of empathy for others; often highly manipulative and seem to lack conscience.
7. Borderline Personality. Borderline personality disorder refers to a collection of symptoms characterized primarily by serious instability in behavior, emotion, identity, and interpersonal relationships. Borderline individuals have intense and unstable personal relationships and experience chronic feeling of extreme anger, loneliness, and emptiness, as well as momentary losses of personal identity. They are inclined to engage in impulsive behavior such as running away, promiscuity, binge eating, and drug abuse, and their lives are often marked by repetitive self-destructive behaviors, such as self-mutilation and suicide attempts that seem designed to call forth a “saving” response from other people in their lives.
8. Avoidant Personality. Individuals with this personality are fearful of becoming involved with people because of excessive fear of criticism or rejection. Although these individuals wish to be in social situations, they become intensely anxious and believe that they are socially inept and inferior to others. Extreme avoidant behaviors lead to social phobias. These patients may use health complaints as a way of socializing; especially if the physician is emphatic and understanding.
9. Dependent Personality. This is characterized by inability to make daily decisions without excessive advice and reassurance. These patients need others to assume responsibility for them. Dependent patients can make inordinate demands by means of repeated telephone calls and they may be unwilling to comply with treatment. These patients also have trouble relinquishing the sick role and living the hospital setting when appropriate.
10. Compulsive personality. This is characterized with excessive concern with rules, order efficiency, and work coupled with insistence that everyone do things their way and inability to express warm feelings. Such individuals tend to be over-inhibited, over-conscientious, over-dutiful and rigid, and to have difficulty relaxing or doing anything just for fun. There is usually a preoccupation with crucial details and poor allocation of time.

SOURCE: Based on DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000; BELTRAN, ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY.(2007)

Treatment and Outcomes of Personality Disorders

People with PERSONALITY DISORDERS are usually considered to be ESPECIALLY RESISTANT TO THERAPY.  In many cases persons with personality disorders who are seen clinically are there as part of another person’s treatment.  As for example, in couple counseling, where the partner identified as the “patient” has a spouse with personality disorder or a child refer to a child guidance center may have a parent with personality disorder.  Because they usually enter treatment only at someone else’s insistence and do not believe that there is a need for them to change, individuals with personality disorders typically put the responsibility for treatment on others and are adept at avoiding the focus of therapy themselves.  The difficulty they have in forming and maintaining good relationships generally tends to make the therapeutic relationship a stormy one.  The pattern of acting out, typical in their other relationships, is carried into the therapy situation, and instead of dealing with their problem at the verbal level, they may become angry with the therapist and loudly disrupt the sessions.  They may behave in socially inappropriate ways to show the therapist that the therapy is not working.

When questioned about such behavior, these individuals often drop out of treatment or become even more entrenched in their defensiveness.  In some cases confrontation can be quite effective.  For individuals who become identified with a therapy group who are sufficiently “hooked” into couple therapy not to flee the session when their behavior comes under scrutiny, the intense feedback from peers or spouse often is more acceptable than confrontation by a therapist in individual treatments.  In some cases, the therapeutic technique must be modified.  In general therapy for individuals with personality disorders is much more likely to be effective in situations like prisons, where acting out behavior can be constrained and the individuals cannot leave the situation. Outpatient treatment is not promising in many cases.

What Do You Think?

“DO I HAVE THAT DISORDER?”

Wondering if you have a psychological disorder when reading about their features is quite understandable. We all experience problems in living at various times, and we may react in ways that bear similarities to the disorder described above. Logically, seeing such a similarity does not necessarily mean that you have the disorder at a clinically level.  On the other hand, if you find that maladaptive behaviors such as those describe above are interfering with your happiness or personal effectiveness, then you should not hesitate to seek professional assistance in changing these behaviors. In addition, you will want to consider the frequency with which the particular behaviors (behavior that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional, and/or so culturally deviant that was defined as ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR (W. Passer, E. Smith, 2007) or experiences occur, as well as the intensity and their duration.  When Problem behaviors occur frequently, are intense, and/or last for a long time, they are more likely to be clinically significant.  In such case, it is important not to let any stigma you might attach to having a psychological problem keep you from acting in your best and discussing your problem with a mental health professional.