Personality Disorders: A Short History of Narcissistic, Borderline, Antisocial, and Other Types

by Allan V. Horwitz

Overview

The fascinating and controversial history of personality disorders.

The concept of personality disorders rose to prominence in the early twentieth century and has consistently caused controversy among psychiatrists, psychologists, and social scientists. In Personality Disorders, Allan V. Horwitz traces the evolution of defining these disorders and the historical dilemmas of attempting to mold them into traditional medical conceptions of disorder.

Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, as a guide, Horwitz explores the group of conditions that make up personality disorders and considers when they have been tied to or separated from other types of mental illnesses. He also examines how these disorders have often entailed negative moral and cultural evaluations more focused on perceived social deviance than on actual medical conditions.

Deep conflicts exist in a variety of disciplines in determining the nature of these disorders. During the twentieth century, a particularly sharp division arose between researchers who study personality disorders and the clinicians who treat them. Because researchers strive to develop general laws and clinicians attempt to understand individuals' specific problems, their values, methods, and goals often conflict. Synthesizing historical and contemporary scholarship, Horwitz examines controversies over the definitions and diagnoses of personality disorders and how the perception of these illnesses has changed over time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421446110
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Allan V. Horwitz (PRINCETON, NJ) is a Board of Governors and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. He is the author of DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible, PTSD: A Short History, Anxiety: A Short History, and Creating Mental Illness.

Allan V. Horwitz (PRINCETON, NJ) is the Board of Governors and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. He is the author of DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible, PTSD: A Short History, Anxiety: A Short History, and Creating Mental Illness.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Issues
2. Personality Disorders Emerge
3. Personality Becomes Social
4. Personality Flourishes
5. Personality Disorders in the DSM-III
6. Personality Contentions in the DSM-5
7. Mental Disorders or Problems in Living?
References
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Allen Frances

Personality disorders mess up people's lives, wreck families, cause societal disruption, and sabotoge medical and mental health treatments. Horwitz' wise and wonderful summary of 2500 years of personality theory and research will fascinate general readers, enlighten students, and help clinicians treat their next patient.

Andrew Scull

A wide-ranging, subtle, and compelling account of attempts by psychiatrists, psychologists and other social scientists to define and come to terms with personality disorders. Simultaneously scholarly and engaging, this is a highly original and important book.

Elizabeth Lunbeck

Allan Horwitz brilliantly illuminates the complex landscape of the personality disorders in this engagingly readable and remarkably capacious history. Organized around the contested distinction between normal and abnormal behavior, these disorders are inextricable from cultural norms and resistant to straightforward classification. An authoritative guide to these intriguing and often misunderstood diagnoses.

From the Publisher

Allan Horwitz has done it again! Using historical, sociological, and psychiatric perspectives, he tells the story of how personality disorders came to be major diagnoses in psychiatry and clinical psychology. The narrative is lively, insightful, and appropriately critical.
—Joel Paris, McGill University; author of The Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practice

Personality disorders mess up people's lives, wreck families, cause societal disruption, and sabotage medical and mental health treatments. Horwitz's wise and wonderful summary of 2,500 years of personality theory and research will fascinate general readers, enlighten students, and help clinicians treat their next patient.
—Allen Frances, Founding Editor, Journal of Personality Disorders; Chair, DSM-IV Task Force

A wide-ranging, subtle, and compelling account of attempts by psychiatrists, psychologists, and other social scientists to define and come to terms with personality disorders. Simultaneously scholarly and engaging, this book is highly original and important.
—Andrew Scull, author of Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness

The personality disorders represent a medial area between normalcy and psychopathology. Horwitz's book is impressive in both its scope and its clarity as he discusses the ideas of writers like Kohut, Hathaway, Skodol, the Menninger brothers, Freud, Widiger, Allport, Spitzer, and Theophrastus. Definitely a stimulating and enjoyable read.
—Roger K. Blashfield, Professor Emeritus, Auburn University

Allan Horwitz brilliantly illuminates the complex landscape of the personality disorders in this engagingly readable and remarkably capacious history. Organized around the contested distinction between normal and abnormal behavior, these disorders are inextricable from cultural norms and resistant to straightforward classification. An authoritative guide to these intriguing and often misunderstood diagnoses.
—Elizabeth Lunbeck, Harvard University, author of The Americanization of Narcissism

Joel Paris

Allan Horwitz has done it again! Using historical, sociological, and scientific perspectives, he tells the story of how personality disorders came to become major diagnoses in psychiatry and clinical psychology. The narrative is lively, insightful, and appropriately critical.

Roger K. Blashfield

The personality disorders represent a borderline area between normalacy and psychopathology. Horwitz's book is both impressive in its scope and its clarity as he discusses the ideas associated with writers like Kohut, Hathaway, Skodol, the Menninger brothers, Freud, Widiger, Allport, Spitzer, and Theophrastus. Definitely a stimulating and enjoyable read.