Please find below a list of disorders in the diagnostic class Personality Disorders. The Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group has been responsible for addressing these disorders. You will find that the work group has recommended a significant reformulation of the approach to the assessment and diagnosis of personality psychopathology, including the proposal of a revised general category of personality disorder, and the provision for clinicians to rate dimensions of personality traits, a limited set of personality types, and the overall severity of personality dysfunction. Accordingly, the structure of this section of the Web site is necesarily somewhat different from those of the other disorders.
Reformulation of Personality Disorders in DSM-5
The work group recommends a major reconceptualization of personality psychopathology with core impairments in personality functioning, pathological personality traits, and prominent pathological personality types. Personality disorder is diagnosed when core impairments and pathological traits are severe or extreme and other critieria are met.
Please comment on this reformulation as a whole by using the Overall Comments section. You may submit comments on each of its components using the comment box on each page linked below.
(a) 5 identified severity levels of personality functioning
(b) 5 personality disorder (PD) types (proposed, pending empirical validation), each defined by core PD components and a subset of:
(c) 6 broad, higher order personality trait domains, with 4-10 lower-order, more specific trait facets comprising each, for a total of 37 specific trait facets (proposed, pending empirical validation)
(d) a new general definition of personality disorder based on severe or extreme deficits in core components of personality functioning and elevated pathological traits
This four-part assessment focuses attention on identifying personality psychopathology with increasing degrees of specificity, based on available time, information, and expertise. Assessment of personality functioning, types, and traits is intended for patients whether or not they have a personality disorder. The optimal order of the assessments of the types and the traits will be determined in Field Trials (please click here to see two alternative assessment formats).
The work group is still holding discussions about how personality disorders ultimately will be represented in DSM-5. We appreciate your review and comment on each of the components of the proposed reformulation.