Personality Disorders

Since the first edition of this book a great deal has happened in the field of personality disorders. It is a term that has now become widely used, not only throughout psychiatry where its meaning has become clearer, but also across the whole field of social sciences through to politics, where it is now perhaps mentioned more often than any other diagnostic label in psychiatry. The social implications of personality disorder are now under the spotlight as never before. This book takes a practical approach to personality disorders, with a much-expanded section on treatment as we begin to see possibilities of changing personality disorder with a variety of interventions. Three versions of the Personality Assessment Schedule are included in a format that can be easily photocopied and used in practice. Foreword by Erik Simonsen, Medical Director, Institute of Personality Theory and Psychopathology. This new edition of "Personality Disorders" has been comprehensive revised by Professor Tyrer and his team. It covers the whole range of aspects of personality disorder, including an account of new developments in diagnosis, description and classification of personality disorder and their separation ( and overlap) with other mental disorders, their assessment and reliability, the epidemiology of personality disorder in places ranging from the community through to inpatient and other institutional settings, and the combination of personality disorders with other mental conditions (co-morbidity), and the implications of this for clinical practice. There is a much expanded section on treatment as for the first time we are beginning to see possibilities of changing personality disorder by a variety of interventions. It also gives a comprehensive account of what is meant by the term "severe personality disorder" abd how it should be assessed. This book should be of interest to clinicians who grapple with the problems of personality disorder daily in their work, to research workers and social scientists needing to know more about the latest developments in this expanding subject, and to social workers and others involved in the planning of care for people with these problems.