Introduction to Personality Disorders

This course will outline the diagnostic criteria for the disorders in each of the DSM-5’s three primary clusters of personality disorders and also give you an understanding of their aetiology, discussing the effects of biological, social, and psychological factors on the development of personality disorders. Treatment considerations are examined. We all manifest both unique personality traits and also characteristics which are common among human beings. Rather than stemming from debilitating reactions to stress in the recent past as do many mental disorders, personality disorders tend to develop from the gradual evolution of inflexible and distorted personality traits that result in persistently maladaptive ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling, and/or behaving.