Understanding Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring, inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that deviate significantly from cultural expectations and cause distress or impairment in social, occupational, and other important areas of functioning. These patterns typically emerge in adolescence or early adulthood and remain stable over time unless addressed through treatment.
Unlike conditions that fluctuate in episodes — such as depression or anxiety — personality disorders are pervasive and affect virtually every aspect of a person's life, from intimate relationships to professional interactions. Dr. Stephanie L. Cornette, Psy.D., provides expert assessment and treatment for personality disorders at her Chicago practice, using cognitive behavior therapy and a wholistic therapeutic approach.
Types of Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are organized into three clusters based on shared characteristics:
Cluster A: Odd or Eccentric Patterns
Paranoid Personality Disorder involves a pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others, interpreting their motives as malevolent. Individuals with this condition may be guarded, hostile, and reluctant to confide in others.
Schizoid Personality Disorder is characterized by detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of emotional expression. Individuals appear indifferent to social interaction and prefer solitary activities.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder involves acute discomfort in close relationships, cognitive or perceptual distortions, and eccentricities of behavior. Individuals may hold unusual beliefs or engage in magical thinking.
Cluster B: Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic Patterns
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) involves a pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions, along with marked impulsivity. Individuals with BPD may experience intense fears of abandonment, rapid mood shifts, chronic feelings of emptiness, and difficulty managing anger. Self-harming behaviors are common. BPD is one of the most widely studied and treated personality disorders.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Beneath the surface, individuals with this condition often harbor deep insecurity and vulnerability to criticism.
Antisocial Personality Disorder involves a disregard for and violation of the rights of others, deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggressiveness, and lack of remorse.
Histrionic Personality Disorder is characterized by excessive emotionality and attention-seeking behavior.
Cluster C: Anxious or Fearful Patterns
Avoidant Personality Disorder involves social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation. Individuals deeply desire connection but avoid social interactions due to fear of rejection or criticism.
Dependent Personality Disorder is characterized by an excessive need to be taken care of, leading to submissive, clinging behavior and fears of separation.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (distinct from OCD) involves a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.
The Assessment Process
Accurate diagnosis of personality disorders requires comprehensive assessment. Dr. Cornette conducts thorough clinical interviews, reviews relevant history, and may recommend formal psychological testing to clarify diagnostic questions. Personality disorders often co-occur with other conditions — including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, mood disorders, and substance use — making careful differential diagnosis essential.
The assessment process also considers the client's relational patterns, emotional regulation abilities, self-concept, coping strategies, and life history. Understanding the full picture allows Dr. Cornette to develop a treatment plan that addresses core personality patterns, not just surface-level symptoms.
Treatment Approach
Treatment of personality disorders is a longer-term process than treatment for many other mental health conditions, reflecting the deeply ingrained nature of personality patterns. However, research consistently demonstrates that personality disorders are treatable, and meaningful change is achievable with committed, skilled intervention.
Dr. Cornette's cognitive behavior therapy-based approach focuses on helping clients understand how their core beliefs about themselves and others drive problematic patterns of behavior and relationships. Treatment aims to increase self-awareness, improve emotional regulation, develop healthier interpersonal skills, and build more adaptive coping strategies.
Key Treatment Goals
- Self-Awareness: Understanding your personality patterns, their origins, and how they affect your life and relationships.
- Emotional Regulation: Learning to identify, tolerate, and manage intense emotions without resorting to impulsive or harmful behaviors. Stress and anger management techniques are often incorporated.
- Interpersonal Effectiveness: Developing skills for building and maintaining healthier relationships, setting boundaries, communicating needs, and resolving conflicts.
- Cognitive Restructuring: Identifying and modifying the rigid, distorted core beliefs that maintain personality patterns.
- Behavioral Change: Gradually replacing maladaptive behavioral patterns with more effective responses to life's challenges.
Dr. Cornette's wholistic perspective ensures that treatment addresses the whole person — including co-occurring conditions, life circumstances, relationships, and personal goals — rather than focusing narrowly on diagnostic criteria.
Seek Expert Personality Disorder Care
Personality disorders are treatable. Dr. Cornette provides the expertise, patience, and compassion needed to help you understand yourself more deeply and build more fulfilling relationships and patterns of living.
Call (773) 988-7144