The term personality disorder is a term used clinically by psychiatrists and psychologists to indicate that a person has maladaptive variants of personality traits. People with personality disorders continue to repeat maladaptive behaviors, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, defenses, and so on, even though this obviously results in social and occupational consequences. The personality disorders, by affecting interpersonal relationship so severely, can be extremely disruptive in a person’s life and cause enormous amounts of suffering. Individuals with personality disorders are unable to manage their traits on their own and require intensive psychotherapy and sometimes even medications. People without personality disorders, in contrast, are able to learn from negative experiences and change their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in order to avoid negative consequences in the future.
The maladaptive symptoms, patterns, and traits of the personality disorders are listed and described in detail in the psychiatric taxonomy book, The Diagnostic and Statistics Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV), and will not be repeated here. There are a total of 10 DSM-IV personality disorders. What is important to understand is that the five dimensions in the NEO-AC are empirically related to personality disorders and their symptoms. It is also important to realize that personality disorders are merely extremely maladaptive and extreme variants of normal personality traits that everyone has.
TABLE 13.1
Five of the Personality Disorders and Their Facet Scores
Each personality disorder yields a unique set of extreme scores on various NEO-AC facets. Table 13.1 shows a few examples of how facet scores cluster in personality disorders.