Major Categories of Personality Disorders, Cluster A, B, C, Odd, Dramatic, Anxious Behaviour

Major Categories of Personality Disorders, Cluster A, B, C, Odd, Dramatic, Anxious Behaviour

Personality disorders are traits exhibited by a person suffering from psychological disorders that makes the person behave in a socially unacceptable way and something that deviates from his own actual nature. The symptoms which are attributed to this kind of psychological disorder are ‘hostile’, ’negative attitude’, ‘detached from responsibilities and relationships’, ‘antisocial behaviour’ etc.

The symptoms of personality disorder remain infested within an individual but the intensity might vary from person to person. Clinically ten major categories of personality disorders have been recognised. The nature causes and the symptoms of these disorders are described in the paragraphs below.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual has grouped the ten major categories of personality disorder into three clusters-A, B and C.

Cluster A- Odd behaviour

Paranoid personality disorder

The symptoms of this disorder are expressed in patients in being suspicious of others actions. People with this syndrome behave badly with everyone to whom they come in contact with as they suffer from the fear of being deceived or cheated by them. These people are prone to have aggressive outbursts and can be emotionally cold in their relationships.

Schizoid personality disorder

These people are termed as loaners who tend to run away from their social attachments. These people do not like interacting too much and they have limited expressions of their feelings. Criminal psychology has ascertained this group to be the most harmful as they are unpredictable and can be easily lured to do unlawful activities.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

These people are characterized by the need to remain isolated and also show outlandish behaviour. In social gatherings they might either remain quite the whole time or show abnormal characteristics like talking to themselves.

Cluster B- Dramatic Behaviour

Antisocial Personality disorder

People with this disorder are unable to distinguish between the good and the bad. They lack any kind of concise feelings and are usually devoid of empathy towards others. These people remain involved in antisocial activities. Researchers believe that going against the social norms make them feel elated and it might be the means of expressing their grudge against the society. This kind of disorder usually gets manifested due to some social abuse that the individual might have incurred at a very young age.

Border Line Personality Disorder

People suffering from border Line disorder have mood swings. They are fearful of rejection and therefore have a very low self image. They may show eruptive behaviour and usually do not know how to control emotions. While one moment they might be enjoying their surroundings laughing and playing jokes the next instance they get engulfed in a gloom. It becomes very difficult to predict their reactions and these people tend to try and keep themselves feel important. In case of rejection, they like drawing attention towards themselves with threats of harming or killing themselves.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

People showing this behaviour value them very high and remain of the view that no one can excel them. They lack empathy and are unable to understand the needs and feelings of others. They like boasting about themselves and always want their activities to be appreciated no matter what. These people have the tendency to point at other peoples weaknesses and can get rude or show aggressive outburst if tha\ey are made to look at their own shortcomings.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

People with this disorder syndrome display a persistent pattern of unwarranted emotional behaviour and try to get attention in weird and unusual ways, like dressing up bizarrely, acting like some one who has been transferred from another planet, might also exhibit incoherent speech and action. They have this need to remain at the centre of attention and can act bizzard and detached if not always asked for. These attention seekers have shifting emotions and can be very dramatical.

Cluster C- Anxious behaviour

Avoidant Personality Disorder

People with this disorder syndrome do not like taking social risks. They keep on scrutinising themselves for fear of being rejected by people and near and dear ones. They want to remain perfect and are commitment fanatics. As a result they try avoiding social gatherings in order to prevent any kind of scrutiny with others. Sometimes they can be very harsh on themselves and they do not know how to handle failure.

Dependant Personality Disorder

This type of personality disorder is usually expressed in individuals who have always been made to remain submissive. These individuals do not know how to express their voice and remain timid and dependant on others for all their decisions and activities. They have low self esteem and low confidence and do not value much their own feelings and needs.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

These people remain obsessed with their work and do not like being left behind in any field of work. They want to be the best and lack flexibility. This feature interferes with their efficiency. They can be very harsh on themselves and on others. The obsessive disorder might vary from individual to individual. There have been many instances when a person from a well to do family has bee caught stealing things. This is a disease called Kleptomania and it is an expression of obsessive compulsive disorder.  In some other cases the persons remain sexually obsessed and are always on the look out for sexual encounters. These people pose high risk for the safety of the society and more than half the cases of assault and physical abuse has been attributed to this kind of disorder.

Split Personality Disorder

People exhibiting this kind of disorder manifest two separate personalities in the same body. These personalities are starkly different from each other and may vary in gender, age and sex. Under extreme duress or stress, one of the personalities overshadows the other and starts expressing itself. The two personalities remain oblivious to the existence of the other and individuals suffering from this disorder suffer from occasional memory loss and convulsions.

Most psychological disorders are treatable. The need is to understand the root cause of the disorders. Usually it has been found that the disorders manifest at an early stage of life and express themselves only when they have grown older. Basically it is always some or the other kind of abuse that leads to the manifestation of these disorders.