Diagnosis of Personality Disorders: A Case Study

Rorschach comprehensive system data for a sample of 478 Iranian children at four ages

This article contributes to the international reference data for the Rorschach Comprehensive System by reporting the responses of 478 nonpatient Iranian children at the 4 age levels of 5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13, and 14 to 16. Interrater reliability is reported, and descriptive statistics are presented for each age level. In common with previous cross-national samples of young people, the Iranian Rorschach findings mirror several expected developmental changes, which indicates their construct validity, and show a low frequency of elevated PTI and DEPI, which limits the likelihood of Rorschach assessment suggesting serious cognitive or affective disorder when neither is present.

An overview of issues related to categorical and dimensional models of personality disorder assessment

Despite long-standing efforts to improve the current diagnostic system for Axis II, problems remain with the categorical conceptualization of personality disorders (PDs). Due in part to these problems, interest has developed in dimensional models of PD classification. In this article, we discuss four issues relevant to categorical vs. dimensional assessment of PDs: (a) problems with self-reports in PD patients, (b) methodological issues in behavioral and clinician assessment of PDs, (c) challenges that arise when dimensional models are applied to patient and nonpatient samples, and (d) clinical implications of categorical and dimensional PD models. We suggest that researchers and clinicians address these concerns to avoid implementing a new PD assessment model that-although different from the current system-would otherwise remain fraught with difficulties.