Personality disorders

The category of personality disorders is broad, with behavioural problems that differ greatly in form and severity. However, they are often quite capable or even gifted in some ways. In more severe cases, we find people whose extreme and often unethical "acting out" against society makes them less able to function in a normal setting; many are incarcerated in prisons or maximum security hospitals, although some are able to manipulate others and keep from getting caught (Butcher, Carson & Mineka 1998). People with personality disorders often cause at least as much difficulty in the lives of others as in their own lives. Other people tend to find the behaviour of individuals with personality disorders confusing, exasperating, unpredictable, and, in varying degrees, unacceptable - although rarely as bizarre or out of contact with reality as that of people with psychotic disorders.