Personality Disorders

Personality disorders represent a clinical condition encompassing various patterns of behaving, feeling, perceiving, managing impulses, and relating to others that are ingrained and habitual. Personality is a term used by psychologists to organize a set of characteristics that distinguish one individual from another (Magnavita, 2002). Although each person is unique, there are certain personality adaptations or styles that psychological scientists use to classify people, and research has shown through factor analysis that most people can be categorized on the basis of just three to five different dimensions.

Keywords: personality disorders; personality; personality systematics; axis II disorders; character disorders