ABSTRACT
In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), which introduced the innovative multiaxial classi cation system. Axis II was devoted primarily to personality dysfunction, due to the prevalence of maladaptive personality traits in general clinical practice and the substantial impact of these traits on the course and treatment of other mental disorders (Frances, 1980). e current version of this diagnostic manual, DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) includes 10 personality disorders organized into three clusters: (1) paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal (the odd-eccentric cluster); (2) antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic (dramatic-emotional-erratic cluster); and (3) avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive (anxious-fearful cluster). However, the diagnosis of personality disorders is likely to undergo a major revision within the next edition (i.e., DSM-5), including a shi to Axis I, deletion of up to half of the diagnoses, replacement of diagnostic criterion sets with prototype matching, and the inclusion of a supplementary dimensional model of patient description (see https://www.dsm5.org). is chapter will begin with a discussion of personality disorders in general, followed by a consideration of ve disorders in particular. roughout we describe and discuss the revisions likely to occur with DSM5, as well as provide an alternative model for the diagnosis and classi cation of maladaptive personality functioning, the ve-factor model (FFM; Widiger & Trull, 2007).
