Major Personality Disorders

Preliminary to any public discussion of personality "disorders," should be an explanation of the term "personality" as it is commonly understood.

Sociologists and psychologists have long-studied the distinctive habitual patterns and qualities of behavior of  individuals, as expressed by their physical and mental activities and attitudes. As seen by those in the individual's environment, it is often summarized as a person's "disposition." These behaviors have been found to fit into a narrow range of types that are accepted or rejected based on conventional and cultural norms. Normative habitual behavior is considered "ordered," while abnormal behavior behavior is that which is seen by people of a given group as "disordered."

Ordered personalities are capable of presenting with responses to social situations that are reinforced from the group by their acceptance. Although they may be seen as unique, they are welcomed or tolerated because they resonate with the drives, motivations, moods and attitudes shared by others in the environment. Most important, because some of each of us is seen in others, ordered behavior may reveal iridescences of traits, which may blend into patterns we may have and can thus accept in others. Even when the personality evidences deviations otherwise seemingly abnormal, they can be accepted as normal if the situation allows it. For example, the barking of the sergeant is reasonably understood by the private as ordered behavior, but when the sergeant comes home and barks at his or her spouse or non-military friends, it is often seen as uncalled for--possibly disordered. When such latter behavior is habitual, i.e., inflexible as the social situation changes, social rejection--or acceptance at the sufferance of others--takes place and, if troublesome enough, its prevalence becomes an incidence diagnosed by those trained in such detection and classification. Properly, a "personality disorder" is identified only when an indiviuals's societal group (home, school, job, etc.) doesn't tolerate its presence.

All individuals have a personality. It is the substrate summary of our experiences and relationships from birth--maybe before in the form of traits. But, biologically speaking, there exists no other bright line of definition of its basic formation before the individual comes into contact with the larger social forces outside of the home. Only a religious or spiritual posture (which accepts an "unknowable") allows for defining a personality earlier. Personality is a socially defined entity, and all definitions and diagnostic formulations are made on the basis of the individual's style of social integration or disintegration.

Diagnosis