General diagnostic criteria for a Personality Disorder

A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas: 

(1) cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events) 
(2) affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional response) 
(3) interpersonal functioning 
(4) impulse control 

B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations. 

C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. 

D. The pattern is stable and of long duration and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood. 

E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder. 

F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).

Reprinted with permission from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Copyright 2000 American Psychiatric Association

A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas: 

(1) cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events) 
(2) affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional response) 
(3) interpersonal functioning 
(4) impulse control 

B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations. 

C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. 

D. The pattern is stable and of long duration and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood. 

E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder. 

F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).

Reprinted with permission from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association