Personality Disorders

What Are Personality Disorders?

Diversity of personality is what makes people unique. However, sometimes personality can manifest itself in inapprioriate and destructive ways. Personality disorders represent a range of destructive and abnormal behaviors, thought-patterns, and emotional responses. Notoriously difficult to treat, personality disorders tend to form in adolescense or early adulthood and persist throughout one's lifetime. There are ten recognized disorders grouped into three categories, listed below.

Links to Our Personality Disorder Pages

• Odd/Eccentric Behavior
• Paranoid Personality Disorder
• Schizoid Personality Disorder
• Schizotypal Personality Disorder
• Dramatic/Erratic Behavior
• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Histrionic Personality Disorder
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Anxious/Inhibited Behavior
• Avoidant Personality Disorder
• Dependent Personality Disorder
• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Personality-Related Books

The New Personality Self-Portrait : Why You Think, Work, Love and Act the Way You Do
"The reader charts his or her profile according to 13 individual personality styles. Each following chapter describes a dominant character pattern, what jobs that person may be most suited for, appropriate personality-type mates, ..."

Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types
"Does your spouse's need to alphabetically organize books on the shelves puzzle you? Do your boss's tsunami-like moods leave you exasperated? We are different for a reason, and that reason is probably more good than bad."

Emotional Vampires : Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry
"Detailing a whole range of personality types and human responses, Bernstein shows you how to spot the "vampires" in your life: self-serving Narcissists, hedonistic Antisocials, exhausting Paranoids, or over-the-top Histrionic drama queens."

Personality Disorder Links

• Personality Disorder Test
• The Merck Manual - Personality Disorders
• Focus Adolescent Services - Personality Disorders

Other Psychological Disorders

Read about Hypochondria, also known as health anxiety.

About the Author

The author of this section is an internet professional who has worked online for over ten years. His other interests include growing tomatoes and other vegetables, which he chronicals in his blog Small Yard Gardening.