List of Personality Disorders

This is a holding page for what I hope to be a glossary of personalities and behaviours. Please note,  it is not assuming members of society who may have one or some of these orders are criminals or even have criminal tendencies, but purely to help us understand what makes some people tick.

To get started here is what some see as the Bible of Psychiatric Disorders, the American Psychiatric Associations groups or clusters on mental Disorders, known as the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders )

American Psychiatric Association

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (currently the DSM-IV) lists ten personality disorders, grouped into three clusters in Axis II. The DSM also contains a category for behavioural patterns that do not match these ten disorders, but nevertheless exhibit characteristics of a personality disorder. This category is labelled Personality disorder not otherwise specified.

Cluster A (odd or eccentric disorders)

Not to be confused with Type A personality.

• Paranoid personality disorder: characterised by irrational suspicions and mistrust of others.
• Schizoid personality disorder: lack of interest in social relationships, seeing no point in sharing time with others, anhedonia, introspection.
• Schizotypal personality disorder: characterised by odd behaviour or thinking.

Cluster B (dramatic, emotional or erratic disorders)

Not to be confused with Type B personality.

• Antisocial personality disorder: a pervasive disregard for the rights of others, lack of empathy, and (generally) a pattern of regular criminal activity.
• Borderline personality disorder: extreme “black and white” thinking, instability in relationships, self-image, identity and behaviour often leading to self-harm and impulsivity. Borderline personality disorder is diagnosed in three times as many females as males.
• Histrionic personality disorder: pervasive attention-seeking behaviour including inappropriately seductive behaviour and shallow or exaggerated emotions.
• Narcissistic personality disorder: a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Characterised by self-importance, preoccupations with fantasies, belief that they are special, including a sense of entitlement and a need for excessive admiration, and extreme levels of jealousy and arrogance.

Cluster C (anxious or fearful disorders)

• Avoidant personality disorder: social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoidance of social interaction.
• Dependent personality disorder: pervasive psychological dependence on other people.
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (not the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder): characterised by rigid conformity to rules, moral codes and excessive orderliness.

Appendix B: Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study

Appendix B contains the following disorders.

• Depressive personality disorder – is a pervasive pattern of depressive cognitions and behaviour’s beginning by early adulthood.
• Passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder – is a pattern of negative attitudes and passive resistance in interpersonal situations.

Other

Some types of personality disorder were in previous versions of the diagnostic manuals but have been deleted. This includes two types that were in the DSM-III-R appendix as “Proposed diagnostic categories needing further study” without specific criteria, namely Sadistic personality disorder (a pervasive pattern of cruel, demeaning and aggressive behaviour) and Self-defeating personality disorder (masochistic personality disorder) (characterised by behaviour consequently undermining the person’s pleasure and goals).The psychologist Theodore Millon and others consider some relegated diagnoses to be equally valid disorders, and may also propose other personality disorders or subtypes, including mixtures of aspects of different categories of the officially accepted diagnoses.