An interesting career-related topic

One of the courses that I found more interesting in this years was phychopatology. I like this area because it take information about the mental illness and their teraphies, and specially how various visions of the psychology’s spectrum of theories defines the mental illness and the adaptability of some behaviors.

Inside this area, a topic that I find interesting to investigate is the concept of personality disorder (formerly knew as Characteriological disorder). This type of mental illness is very difficult to identify and has its basis in personal and social disfunctions, fact that give the personality disorders a wide range of classifications.

According to the American Psychological Asociation, these disorders are grouped in three clusters, that I quote here:

Cluster A (odd or eccentric disorders)

Paranoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Schizotypal personality disorder

Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic disorders)

Antisocial personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder

Cluster C (anxious or fearful disorders)

Avoidant personality disorder
Dependent personality disorder (not the same as Dysthymia)
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (not the same as Obsessive-compulsive disorder)

Otto Kernberg, has a theory that explains three mental-psichic schemes: Neurotic, Border-line and Psychotic. This theory fits with the description of the three cluster, quoted above, and has an inspiration to the APA for making this classification.

Instead its in discussion yet, this page contains a simple description of each cluster and its disfunctions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorders

And, finally, I invite you to take the test of this page:

http://www.4degreez.com/misc/personality_disorder_test.mv

This test can help you to know more abour your personality and, depending of your results, it can help you to determine whether or not you have a personality disorder. Good luck on it!

See you!