Synonyms
Paranoid personality disorder, Schizoid personality disorder, Dissocial personality disorder, Emotionally unstable personality disorder, Histrionic personality disorder, Anancastic (obsessive-compulsive) personality disorder, Anxiety-preventing personality disorder, Asthenic (dependent) personality disorder
Summary
The term “personality disorder” covers a wide spectrum of quite different disorders, which are characterized by the particularly extreme manifestation of certain character traits or “peculiarities”. The decisive factor for the classification as a disorder is not the presence, but rather the particularly strong expression of the personality traits, which are often very stable over time and situations. It is not always easy to decide to what extent such a “eccentricity” of a person requires treatment, especially since the tolerance of different societies towards the “eccentricity” of their members varies greatly.
An indication of the need for treatment for a personality disorder is given, for example, by the actual or perceived limitations of the person affected in everyday, professional and social life. Ultimately, there is no clarity about the frequency of personality disorders in the population; estimates vary between 6-23%. Different psychotherapeutic methods are used for therapy, which depend on the type of disorder in question. Such a psychotherapeutic treatment can take a lot of time, but in many cases it leads to a good reduction of the symptoms or a good integration of the patients into their everyday life.
Excursus – Personality
When approaching the clinical picture of “personality disorder”, it is essential to first get an idea of the term “personality”. A common definition sees personality as the sum of individual characteristics that make a person unique. Within the framework of personality psychology, there are various models that take this fact into account and attempt to capture various aspects of personality and generalize them for the purpose of manageability.
An example of this is the concept of the “Big Five”, which assigns five main dimensions to the concept of personality, which in a sense represent scales between two end points. Within the framework of psychological tests, point values are assigned to answers to standardized questions on these scales, which, when viewed together, provide information about the personality structure of the respondent. The five dimensions here are: Dimensions of personality, based on the concept of the “Big Five
- Extroversion | “sociable” – “reserved
- Compatibility | “peaceable” – “quarrelsome
- Conscientiousness | “thorough” – “careless
- Neuroticism (emotional stability) | “relaxed” – “sensitive
- Openness | “creative” – “unimaginative
