Description of personality disorders

The most common feature of personality disorders is their inflexibility and resistance to treatment. Patients who suffer from personality disorders experience a great deal of dysfunction in their personal relationships, due both to the disorder itself and to their and others' ignorance of the disorder's existence. The patients cannot correlate their relationship difficulties with their personality disorders, and those who care for patients with a personality disorder have difficulty understanding the rigid behaviors and maladaptive …

…in which the person perceives the world, he or she cannot share in the group solemnity. The same is true when a happy occasion becomes miserable for the person with a dependent or histrionic personality disorder because of the shift of attention away from him or her. Personality disorders cause lifelong dysfunction for those who experience them. The social impairment that marks this category of psychological disorders is the greatest similarity between the ten types.