T3 - Personality Disorder Overview

Many of you asked for it, so here's the first installment (overview) of the Personality Disorder Parade.

A personality disorder is an "enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early childhood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment" (DSM, p. 685).

There are three clusters of personality disorders that are based on descriptive similarities outlined below:

Cluster A = Odd/Eccentric

Paranoid
Schizoid
Schizotypal

Cluster B = Dramatic/Emotional

Antisocial
Borderline
Histrionic
Narcissistic

Cluster C = Anxious/Fearful

Avoidant
Dependent
Obsessive-Compulsive

All the personality disorders have six diagnostic criteria:

1) an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from cultural expectations and is manifested in at least two of the following areas:

• cognition (ways of perceiving/interpreting self/others/events)
  
• affectivity (range, intensity, ability to change and appropriateness of emotional response)
• interpersonal functioning
  
• impulse control
  

2) the pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations

3) the pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning

4) the pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back to at least adolescence of early adulthood

5) the pattern is not better accounted for an a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder

6) the pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or general medical condition


These general diagnostic criteria for a personality disorder will give you a better understanding of how widespread the effect is on a person who suffers from them. Next week, I'll continue the Personality Disorder Parade with a rundown of the more prominent personality disorders (like antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive).

How can this help you as a writer?

Personality disorders are a great vice to give a villain or even the main character. Once the reader understands that the villain has an actual disorder, they are more likely to feel a little sympathy toward them. If the villain is mentally ill and not taking medication or getting help, then there is still hope for the him or her. See how that can be helpful?

Some of these personality disorders are just begging for you to snap them up and use them in a WIP. Just by reading the descriptions of the criteria for diagnosing someone with antisocial personality disorder or borderline personality disorder...your writer brains will be working overtime as the possibilities you'll hopefully come away with!

Stay tuned for next week...Antisocial Personality Disorder is first. It's a terrible thing to actually diagnose a real person with, but a writer's playground to give a fictional character!


Q4U: Is there a particular personality disorder that you've "heard something about" that you might want clarified when I get to that disorder?