Personality Disorders

1. Personality disorders are characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating markedly from those accepted by the individual's culture.
2. Paranoid personality disorder is a mental disorder characterized by pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others.
3. Schizotypal personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.
4. Magical thinking is the attribution of causal relationships between actions and events which seemingly cannot be justified by reason and observation.
5. Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking emotions, usually beginning in early adulthood, including inappropriately seductive behavior and an excessive need for approval.


Narcissus by Caravaggio, gazing at his own reflection.

6. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder in which a person is excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity, mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and others.
7. Avoidant personality disorder corresponds to a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation, and avoidance of social interaction despite a strong desire to be close to others.
8. Dependent personality disorder is a personality disorder that is characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people.
9. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is characterized by a general pattern of concern with orderliness, perfectionism, and excessive attention to details. This is a distinct disorder from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is an anxiety, rather than a personality, disorder.
10. Borderline personality disorder includes a pattern of impulsivity and instability of behaviors, interpersonal relationships, and self-image. The pattern is present by early adulthood and occurs across a variety of situations and contexts.
11. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others. There may be an impoverished moral sense or conscience and a history of crime, legal problems, and impulsive and aggressive behavior.
12. Diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, conduct disorder presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. It is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder.
13. Psychopathy is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.