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Social Factors in the Personality Disorders: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Etiology and Treatment

BMJ 1997; 314 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7074.154 (Published 11 January 1997) Cite this as: BMJ 1997;314:154
  1. Kwame McKenzie
  1. honorary clinical research fellow, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London

    Joel Paris Cambridge University Press, £35, pp 232. ISBN 0 521 47224 5

    Personality disorders have been accepted by psychiatrists as a category of mental illness for only a few decades, and several problems remain. No universally accepted way exists for defining different types; relatively little research has been done on outcome and treatment; and many doctors do not understand them, do not see them as mental disorders, and think they are untreatable. The better understanding of their aetiology which Professor Paris hopes to foster would go a long way to producing agreed classifications and debunking the myths that surround the subject.

    Society is important in the promotion of personality disorders, and what constitutes a disorder is different in different cultures. For instance, in some …

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