Personality disorders are patterns of thinking. They are patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are unlike the typical patterns for the culture in which someone is raised. Personality disorders are influenced by culture, upbringing, and genetics.
Personality disorders are defined by the DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition.
It includes the following personality disorders:
- Antisocial personality disorder – antisocial (criminal) behavior, anger, boredom, and general discontent.
- Avoidant personality disorder – social isolation, fear of criticism, extreme shyness, and an inferiority complex.
- Borderline personality disorder – anxiety, fear of abandonment, self-loathing, and mood swings.
- Dependent personality disorder – social approval dependence, fear of being alone, extreme helplessness, and sensitivity to criticism.
- Histrionic personality disorder – attention seeking, strong opinions, easily influenced, obsessed with appearance, rapid emotion and mood shifts, and hyper-sexual behavior.
- Narcissistic personality disorder – need for undeserved admiration, callousness, intolerance of criticism, entitlement, and avoidance of vulnerability.
- Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder – obsessive rule following, obsessive list making, debilitating perfectionism, work obsession, moral inflexibility, and stubbornness.
- Paranoid personality disorder – social distrust, emotional coldness, unforgiving, sensitivity to criticism.
- Schizoid personality disorder – social isolation, indifferent to praise, lack of close friends, limited range of emotions, reduced sex drive, and relationship avoidance.
- Schizotypal personality disorder – severe social anxiety, thought disorder, paranoid ideation, derealization, and transient psychosis.
Because both upbringing (family) and inheritance (genetics) influence personality disorders, they can be of interest to both personal ancestry and genetic genealogy.
Sources & Resources
General
- What are Personality Disorders? – American Psychiatric Association
- The alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders – NCBI – NIH
- Personality disorder – Wikipedia
- Personality Disorders Foundation Materials – MH Reference
- Personality Disorder – MHA
Journal Articles
- Hofvander, B., Delorme, R., Chaste, P., Nydén, A., Wentz, E., Ståhlberg, O., Herbrecht, E., Stopin, A., Anckarsäter, H., Gillberg, C. and Råstam, M. (2009). Psychiatric and psychosocial problems in adults with normal-intelligence autism spectrum disorders. BMC psychiatry, 9(1), 35+.