Personality Disorders: A Case Study

Personality disorders are one of the most prevalent cluster of afflictions in the media and are often misunderstood and hard to diagnose. Many personality disorders are focused around how one relates to themselves, as well as, people around them. It is the "abnormality" of one's emotions and relationships that can severely affect the sufferer's life. Through the Personality Disorder Assessment and The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook there are general signs that differentiates someone who struggles with personality abnormalities from the rest of society. However, there is controversy in the diagnosis of personality disorders. It can be difficult to differentiate abnormality from the norm, especially if there are outside factors.

Within both the personality assessment and the DBT workbooks, there was a focus on emotional control and how one deals with society and interpersonal relationships. As emotions are a large part of one's self, it is clear how they are a main factor in personality. It is interesting that many of the therapeutic approaches to personality disorders is not to change one's entire being, but to simply change how the patient approaches their situations and the emotions that may follow. Many of the steps in the DBT workbooks advised to practice reacting to stressful stimuli and explore healthy ways to work through feelings ( (Mckay, Wood, & Brantley, pp. 10-16). Although the effect a personality disorder can have on a person can be severe, it is likely that the social isolation that may follow as a result of the disorder could in fact worsen the symptoms or even create new ones. People suffering from personality disorders are often viewed as socially abnormal which could lead to further isolation and an even more skewed view of self and society (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2014, pp. 252-254). From this, it is good that the DBT workbooks are so focused on rehabilitation to avoid worsening of symptoms in the

The test was informative and provided a quick window into one's life. However, one concern with this test is its shortness and lack clarity and specifics in certain areas. Personally, I found some questions to be quite general and the answer choices to be limited. Vague statements referring to mood shifts or, what a person is willing to do to complete a task, can be misinterpreted or confusing depending on cultural norms (Human Informatics Inc., 2015). Although the generalization of the questions and answers make the test simple and straight forward, they also give a rough and disputed view of the patient taking the test. Also, I found it easy to justify leaning towards certain answers to either appear more socially acceptable or more socially "abnormal". These concerns are especially worrying in testing personality disorders, for which the patient could be unreliable. This can be seen in some personality disorders such as, Cluster A and Cluster B personality disorders, that may predispose the patient to paranoia or manipulative behaviors (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2014, p.