Personality Disorder

Abstract

A diagnosis of personality disorder is commonly used in psychiatry. It is generally agreed to refer to a disorder manifested by limited adaptive flexibility and certain relatively fixed ineffectual modes of behaviour (Ausubel, 1961; Brody and Lindbergh, 1967; DSM II, 1968; Noyes and Kolb, 1958; Schneider, 1950; Small, Small, Alig and Moore, 1970; Walton, Foulds, Littman and Presly, 1970). However, of twenty or more different types of personality disorders only antisocial personality has been differentiated by rigorous criteria as a distinct diagnostic entity (Robins, 1967; Feighner, Robins, Guze, Woodruff, Winokur and Munoz, 1972; Robins, 1966).