personality disorder

personality disorder, any of a group of mental disorders characterized by enduring patterns of cognition, emotional experience, and interpersonal functioning that differ markedly from cultural expectations and that impair an individual’s relationships, work, or other important areas of functioning. Although everyone possesses personality traits that are more or less stable, with some variation over time, personality disorders are diagnosed when those traits become inflexible, pervasive, and maladaptive across many situations. These patterns typically emerge during...