Developments in the assessment and classification of personality disorders

The assessment of personality disorder requires skills in communication, interpretation and understanding. The need to separate personality functioning from other forms of more transient effects on current status can be difficult, and often corroboratory evidence is needed. It is argued that good assessment of personality can be made at all stages of life from the age of 10 onwards and that adherence to the current category classification is unlikely to improve agreement or be useful in practice. However, this can be easily converted to a classification based on severity by combining categories into the three main clusters of personality (A - the odd or eccentric group; B - the flamboyant or erratic group; C - the anxious/fearful group). There may also be merit in classifying personality disorder according to the wish for, or resistance to, treatment, by separation into treatment-resisting ('Type R') or treatment-seeking ('Type S') personalities.