Diagnosing Personality Disorders, Essays (university) of Psychology

Download Diagnosing Personality Disorders and more Essays (university) Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Diagnosing Personality Disorders Subject: Psychology — Paper 1 Personality traits are enduring, usually rigid patterns of behavior, thinking (cognition), and emoting expressed during a kind of circumstances and situations and throughout one's life (typically from early adolescence onward). Some personality traits are harmful to both oneself and to others. These are the dysfunctional traits. Often they cause discomfort and thus the person bearing these traits is unhappy and self-critical. this is often often called ego- dystony. At other times, even the foremost pernicious personality traits are happily endorsed and even flaunted by the patient. this is often often called "ego-syntony". The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) describes 12 ideal "prototypes" of personality disorders. It provides lists of seven to nine personality traits per each disorder. These are called "diagnostic criteria". Whenever five of these criteria are met, knowledgeable mental state diagnostician can safely diagnose the existence of a mental disturbance . But important caveats apply. No two people are alike. Even subjects suffering from the same mental disturbance are often worlds apart as far as their backgrounds, actual conduct, inner world, character, social interactions, and temperament go. Diagnosing the existence of a personality trait (applying the diagnostic criteria) is an art, not a science. Evaluating someone's conduct, appraising the patient's cognitive and emotional landscape, and attributing motivation to him or her, could also be a matter of judgment. there is no calibrated instrument which can provide us with an objective reading of whether one lacks empathy, is unscrupulous, is sexualizing situations and people , or is clinging and needy.