The relationship between the level of personality organization and personality disorders

Abstract

In response to psychotherapists dissatisfaction with modern psychiatric classifications, based on the identification of symptoms rather than the dynamic processes behind them, attempts have been made to find parallels between and to integrate both psychotherapeutic and psychiatric concepts of personality. Much credit for this goes to psychoanalyst Otto F. Kernberg with his theory of personality organisations. Most noteworthy are his efforts to formulate a new conception of personality disorders in the psychiatric classification of mental disorders DSM-5, which is not yet included in the official version, but is presented in the Appendix as an alternative view, encouraging clinicians to research it.

The present paper attempts to find parallels between Kernberg’s concept of personality organisations and psychiatric conception of personality disorders in a non-clinical sample of students. Our results largely support the psychoanalytic assumptions of the specific relationship between personality disorders (and personality organization) in accordance with the theory of object relations. In order to make general conclusions research should be repeated on a larger clinical sample and should use various measurement methods.