Personality and its Disorders: A Reappraisal

ISBN-13: 9781036456276 / Twarda / 2025

Richard Howard

Opis

The status of so-called personality disorders as reflecting inner pathology is currently questioned – they are viewed, even by some psychiatrists, as stigmatizing and not properly falling within the remit of psychiatry. Yet personality disorders remain obstinately present world-wide and are associated with aberrant behaviors that sometimes lead those afflicted to fall into the net of the criminal justice system. This book interrogates the nature of personality disorders and will appeal to anyone for whom the varieties of human personality hold a fascination. It starts from the premise that to understand what a disordered personality is, we first need to understand what normal personality is and what it does. The author re-frames personality disorders as aberrant variations of normal personality that arise when normal human development is derailed by a series of insults and injuries occurring between birth and adulthood. The author emphasizes the importance of considering the social and cultural environment in which aberrant personality emerges.