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In this early study, written in 1985, I examined six of the most important personality traits of Sylvia Plath, the poet and writer (1). Sylvia oscillated between positions of dependency and independence; she was characterised by sexual inhibition and promiscuity, writer's block and an explosion of writing, achievement con- straint and liberation from the constraint, emotional dependence and independence. Paradoxically, she committed suicide when far more things (children, productive creative period, publication of her novel) tied her to life than was the case before her first suicide attempt (2). Her life was spent in the perspective of death; death was her main point of reference, and at the same time was a constantly present alternative solution (3). Her neurasthenic, sometimes bipolar mode of existence determined her everyday behaviour: fatigue, irritability, a low ability to tolerate failure, a tendency to somatisation, anxious attitude, low self-esteem (4). She lived between extremes: insensitivity and over-sensitivity, bad and good moods, ego systole and ego diastole, ambivalence towards close family members (father, mother, Ted), relationship fluctuating between adoration and hate (5). Her poetry persona was characterised by object phobia: in her poems objects become hooks, loops, traps (6). She was ambivalent towards both women and men: she hated women, while her effective therapist was a woman; she was jealous of men, she was not capable of a symmetrical partner relationship, she was either subordinate or superior. In Plath's poetry the incompatible dichotomy of soft worm and hard mask refers to the irreconcilable contradiction between the male and female world.

Sylvia Plath was one of the most famous American poets in the twentieth century. Plath was diagnosed with depression after her first suicide attempt when she was 20 years old. Her major depression (without psychotic symptoms) recurred several times. Plath never had a manic episode, but there were probable hypomanic periods in her life. She died by violent suicide when she was 30. Sylvia Plath took a bottle of sleeping pills and stuck her head in a gas oven. Several factors may have contributed to Plath's psychiatric disorder and suicide. The author reviews the etiological factors and course of psychiatric disorder based on the Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath and the literature. Her family history was positive and her premorbid personality was vulnerable to depression. There were histrionic, narcissistic and borderline features in her personality. The probable diagnoses of Plath were bipolar II. affective disorder and mixed personality disorder.

Henry VIII of England is one of the most controversial figures in European history. He was born on 28 June 1491 as the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and became the heir to the English throne after his elder brother died prematurely. A contradictory picture of Henry's character emerges from history: the young Henry was a vigorous, generous and intelligent king who saw early military and naval successes. In contrast, in his later years he became cruel, petty and tyrannical. His political paranoia and military misjudgements are in direct contrast to his earlier successes and promise. Several hypotheses have been put forward regarding his transformation from a renaissance king to a later medieval tyrant, including endocrinopathies, psychiatric illnesses and traumatic brain injury. In this paper we examine the historical evidence linking the change in Henry's personality and health problems to traumatic brain injury. To our knowledge this is the first systematic neurological study of traumatic brain injury in Henry VIII., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

As the revision process leading to DSM-5 began, the domain of personality disorder embodied the highest aspirations for major change. After an initial prototype-based proposal failed to gain acceptance, the Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group (P&PDWG) developed a hybrid model containing categorical and dimensional components. A clash of perspectives both within the P&PDWG and between the P&PDWG and DSM-5 oversight committees led to the rejection of this proposal from the main body of DSM-5. Major issues included conflicting ways of conceptualizing validation, differences of opinion from personality disorder experts outside the P&PDWG, divergent concepts of the magnitude of evidence needed to support substantial changes, and the disagreements about clinical utility of the hybrid model. Despite these setbacks, the 'Alternative DSM-5 Model of Personality Disorder' is presented in Section III of the DSM-5. Further research should clarify its performance relative to the DSM-IV criteria reprinted in the main DSM-5 text.

The issue of personality disorders addresses fundamental questions of psychiatry: Is there a clear boundary between normal behaviour and the state of mental illness? Which criteria are defining this boundary? Is a personality disorder really a mental illness or «just» a special variation of an individual lifestyle? This paper reviews the development of the terms psychopathy/personality disorder from the early 19th century to the present-day diagnostic manuals ICD-10 and DSM-5. This debate spreads out–as it does with regard to any other mental disorder–between psychopathological, neurobiological and social sciences approaches. It is of high practical relevance to realize that nowadays effective therapeutic options for patients with personality disorders are available. Therefore, the therapeutic nihilism of earlier times is no longer justified.

The Alcatraz prison, with its picturesque surroundings and fascinating life stories of its inmates, has been the subject of a number of films and publications. The authors take a closer look at the biographies of "Al Capone", Robert "Birdman" Stroud and "Mickey" Cohen. These legendary American mobsters shared not only a history at "The Rock", but also a history of neuropsychiatric diseases, ranging from neurosyphilis to anti-social, borderline and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.

The past 25 years have shown major advances in the studies of personality disorders. This collaborative article by the presidents, past and present, of ISSPD reflects on the progress within several significant areas of studies, i.e., assessment, neuroscience, treatment, prevention, advocacy, and mental health policy.

This paper analyzes the major historical milestones in the study of normal and abnormal personality, from antiquity up until the 20th century. Special attention is paid to the interaction between dimensional and typological approaches, which was a major issue during the preparation of DSM-5. Theories of personality started with the humoral theory of Greek medicine. Pinel, and later Esquirol and Prichard, are credited with the first descriptions of abnormal personalities in textbooks of psychiatry. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, elaborate systems of normal and abnormal personality, associating to some degree types and dimensions, were devised by a succession of European psychologists, such as Ribot, Heymans, and Lazursky. Emil Kraepelin and Kurt Schneider proposed classifications of abnormal personality types. In parallel, psychoanalysts stressed the role of early life experiences. Towards the mid-20th century, statistical methods were applied to the scientific validation of personality dimensions with pioneers such as Cattell, anticipating the five-factor model.

n his famous 1918 book „The sensitive relative delusion” Ernst Kretschmer not only described this specific delusional disorder but also the underlying sensitive personality disorder. Until now, relatively little attention has been paid to this part of his work. The incomplete reception is outlined, followed by a description of the symptoms, psychodynamics and course of sensitive personality disorder. The interpretation of "Anton Reiser: a psychological novel" - the autobiographical work by Karl Philipp Moritz in 1785 – is used as an example since it describes Anton Reiser as a sensitive personality.

The study of personality differences can be traced back to the early speculations of ancient societies, such as India, China, Babylonia, Greece, and Rome. Though a few clinicians, notably Hippocrates, stressed the importance of careful and systematic observation, hoping thereby to shift the focus of attention to natural rather than animistic events, it was not until centuries later that semiscientific approaches began to take hold, e.g., phrenology. In the past century, descriptive psychiatrists of note began to pose "typologies," e.g., Kraepelin and Schneider, and several insightful psychoanalysts, e.g., Freud, Abraham, and Reich, articulated the developmental roots of "character" variations. Official classification systems, e.g., the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases, have become the guiding arbiter of late-twentieth-century proposals. No less significant currently is the work of empirically oriented inductivists, e.g., Livesley and Widiger, and theoretically oriented deductivists, e.g., Kernberg and Millon.

Aim: To study demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and diagnoses of patients admitted for personality disorders to Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče between 1879 and 1929., Methods: Data were collected from the archives of Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital for a 50-year period from November 1879 to December 1929. The ratio between the number of patients with personality disorder and the number of all admitted patients was determined. We used 3 systems of definitions of personality disorder: for cases before 1923, we used Prichard’s concept of moral insanity and unpublished definitions of one of the hospital managers at that time; for cases after 1923, we used Schneider’s classification of psychopathic personalities and unpublished definitions of one of the hospital managers at that time., Results: The total number of admissions during the study period was 18 960, 141 (0.74%) of which were for a personality disorder. Of the admitted patients, 85.8% were men and 59.7% were single. The average age was 29.7 } 9.5 years. Most of them (61.7%) were sent to the hospital by courts or police, and the median length of stay was 92 days (interquartile range, 92.0 - 127.5 days). The first patient with a personality disorder was admitted in 1889 with a diagnosis of moral insanity. Until 1920, only 3 terms were used for personality disorder: moral insanity, psychopathic inferiority, and psychopathy. The term was subdivided only after that year. Of the 141 patients admitted for personality disorder, 34 (24.1%) were discharged with comorbid disorders, mainly substance abuse. The most common single comorbid diagnosis was Ganser syndrome (prison psychosis)., Conclusion: Archives of the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital contain reliable data about the earliest nomenclature of personality disorders, the increase in the prevalence of personality disorders, and further subdivision of the term personality disorder. Nomenclature for these disorders used at the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital was consistent with that used in clinical practice in other parts of the world at the time.

The historical basis of personality assessment that led to the development of today's approaches and applications is described. The modern era of personality assessment began in late nineteenth-century Europe. Early twentieth-century highlights included the development of projective techniques like the Rorschach and several early self-report inventories, culminating in the development of the most widely used measure, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The most recent 30-year period showed expansions into personnel screening; clinical assessment, including wide use in forensic settings; and therapeutic assessment. However, contemporary controversies are apparent with two of the most widely used measures, the Rorschach and the MMPI instruments. These controversies are described, including concerns about the Exner Comprehensive System for the Rorschach and the last five years of changes to the MMPI-2, including the introduction of the Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales, the adoption of the Fake Bad Scale (FBS) into the instrument, and the release of the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF). Current challenges facing psychologists in personality assessment are highlighted.

Objective: This paper inquires the hypothesis that Hitler's rise to power was in part due to a hypnotic therapy he had undergone when being treated for hysterical blindness at an army hospital in the town of Pasewalk in October 1918 - as recent contributions have argued. Edmund Forster, his psychiatrist at that time, is supposed to have suggested to Hitler that he would be ordained as Germany's redeemer in times of defeat, thus causing a profound change in his patient's personality., Methods: Following three lines of argument, this paper examines if such an assumption can be made plausible. Firstly, it takes a close look at the main historical source which is the novel THE EYEWITNESS, written in German language by the Czech-Jewish author Ernst Weiss. Then it asks if Forster is likely to have chosen hypnosis as a method of treatment. Finally, it exploits the work of the even lesser known author Alexander Moritz Frey who happened to serve close to Hitler as a medical orderly in WW I, thus trying to validate whether or not Hitler really underwent a change of personality in autumn 1918., Results: Although the eventualities of such a hypnotic treatment or a profound change in Hitler's behaviour in that time cannot be disproved, both seem highly unlikely., Conclusion: S One should altogether abandon the notion of Hitler having suffered a permanent change of personality in 1918, be it due to psychiatric treatment or to psychological trauma itself.

Ivan IV "The Terrible" was the first Tsar of all Russias and was crowned in 1547. He extended Russian territories and opened the route to Siberia in successful campaigns against Tartars. He increased his personal power to the point of generating an autocracy that isolated him progressively from the council of Boyars. He had a complex personality and his acts were impregnated by a profound religiousness, episodes of rage, mood changes and a sense of "personal fate". All these traits configure the controversial "temporal lobe personality". The possible association between these personality traits and the eventual epilepsy that Ivan IV could suffer, is discussed. This association is called "temporal lobe syndrome". Considering the mood changes, with severe irritability and episodes of control loss alternated with feelings of guilt, sadness and isolation, another possibility is that the Tsar had an affective bipolar disorder or, less probably, a personality disorder.

Many of Meehl's interests converged in his work on personality assessment. In empirical research, development of the K scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and various scales of other tests are noteworthy, but his most profound contributions were conceptual and philosophical. Essays on the role of base rates in clinical decision and on construct validity in psychological tests provided vital insights on core issues in assessment. The concept of nomological nets allowed systematic investigation of unobservable theoretical entities, with liberating effects on all natural sciences. An active clinician, Meehl understood deeply the complexities of professional service, but his insistence on empirical validation as the ultimate arbiter of the value of any procedure required all attainable rigor in the scientific foundations of clinical practice.

Julius Ludwig August Koch was born 1841 in the small town of Laichingen (Württemberg) in the Southwest of Germany. After working as a chemist for about seven years, he studied medicine in Tübingen from 1863 to 1867. First he worked as a physican and later in a private mental hospital in Göppingen. From 1874 to 1898, he was director of a state mental hospital in Zwiefalten (Württemberg). Koch died in 1908 after a long period of suffering in Zwiefalten. Being deeply routed in a Christian faith and having much interest in moral and ethical issues, Koch published some philosophical works 'Epistomological investigations' (Erkenntnistheoretische Untersuchungen, 1882), 'Outline of philosophy' (Grundriss der Philosophie, 1885) and 'Reality and its knowledge' (Die Wirklichkeit und ihre Erkenntnis, 1886). In this papers he tried to bring together critical Kantian philosophy and Christian conviction. In 1888 he published a 'Short Textbook of Psychiatry' (Kurzgefasster Leitfaden der Psychiatrie), where he mentioned the term "psychopathic inferiority" for the first time (Psychopathische Minderwertigkeiten). The following work, focussing on this issue with the title 'Psychopathic Inferiority' (Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten, 1891-1893), became one of the fundamental texts concerning the concept of disorders of personality, which are in use today. In this book, published in three parts, he tried to describe the hole field between psychic normality and psychoses. Only the first and biggest part deals with psychopathological symptoms which we now think to be essential for personality disorders. Koch differentiates between "disposition" (Disposition), "burden" (Belastung) and "degeneration" (Degeneration), assuming a graduation. "Disposition" should be the mildest disorder, turning into normality, whereas "degeneration" turns to psychosis. Koch believed, that on the basis of all degrees of "psychpathic inferiority" there was a congenital defect of the constitution of the brain. To be consistent, he demanded that the individuals in question should not be punished as hard as people without this disorder by the courts, and proposed to open up special institutions beside the usual prisons. Beside this, Koch describes in the other parts of his book vividly for example acute and chronical organic psychoses and obsessions. Although psychiatric disorders are classified different today, Kochs work keeps its great importance for the concept of personality disorders, further more one can find very exact and detailed descriptions of a multitude of psychpathological symptoms, which are worth reading them today.

Russian romancist Fiódor Dostoevsky's composition, besides its extraordinary literary value, has a special importance for neurologists and epileptologists. The writer, who suffered of epilepsy, transmitted in his texts the epileptic's universe and how the patient is perceived by the society. His novels had great influence on how epilepsy is perceived by western culture. The romance "The Idiot" has as protagonist Prince Liev Nikoláievitch Míchkin, a epileptic with remarkable personality. Considering the propose made by Geschwind-Waxman (1975) of a interictal personality syndrome in temporal lobe epilepsy, this article intends to discuss the behavioral alterations in epileptic patient, from Míchkin, the main character in Fiódor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot".

Objective: The article deals with the complex conceptual history and current concepts on the relationship between personality, personality disorders and affective disorders. It is discussed whether these concepts represent distinct clinical entities or whether they lie on a continuum., Method: We reviewed the classical literature from the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries as well as analysed recent empirical data in order to summarize the current knowledge on this topic with respect to its historical origin. As a particular example, the position of the depressive personality disorder is evaluated., Results: Considerable heterogeneity can be seen, both theoretically and empirically. The two major concepts are based either on a continuum model or favour distinct clinical entities, corresponding to a more dimensional or category-orientated recording method., Conclusion: The relationship between personality disorders and affective disorders is still unclear and is a highly debated issue. There is as yet no consensus, but a certain shift to dimensional models can be recognized.

The prevalence of personality disorders seems to be increasing in the last decades. Many sociologists and historians believe that since the end of World War II, we have seen important changes, social, cultural and economic, which could indicate that we are entering a new age. The Postmodern Age, after nearly 500 years of Modern Age. Postmodernits is characterized by an increase of the speed in all realms of life, permanent changes, materialism, dominance of capitalism as economic model, changes of roles, etc. We speculate about the posibility that the characteristics of postmodern society may be contributing to the increase of prevalence of personality disorders in general and some of them in particular.

The authors make available in this paper the text of a previously unpublished letter by Freud, probably addressed to the founder of British ecology and his former patient, Sir Arthur Tansley, F.R.S., dating from 1932, concerning the treatment and later life of 'Anna O.', the first psychoanalytic patient. They give the full text of Freud's letter as discovered, and offer a brief commentary on its significance as evidence of Freud's view or views of Anna O.'s treatment, case-history and later life. The authors compare the view of Anna O.'s treatment and later life with other sources, in particular Freud's roughly contemporaneous letter to Stefan Zweig. The letter's principal novel formulation is to be found in the phrase 'a cure with a defect', with which Freud characterised Anna O.'s experience of her treatment with Breuer.

It has been proved that Adolf Hitler suffered from idiopathic Parkinson's disease. No indication for postencephalitic parkinsonism was found in the clinical symptoms or the case history. Professor Max de Crinis established his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in Hitler early in 1945 and informed the SS leadership, who decided to initiate treatment with a specially prepared 'antiparkinsonian mixture' to be administered by a physician. However, Hitler never received the mixture, this implies that the SS intended to remove the severely diseased 'Leader'. Two different character traits can be analysed in Hitler's personality: on the one hand the typical premorbid personality of parkinsonian patients with uncorrectable mental rigidity, extreme inflexibility and insupportable pedantry. On the other an antisocial personality disorder with lack of ethical and social values, a deeply rooted tendency to betray others and to deceive himself and uncontrollable emotional reactions. This special combination in Hitler's personality resulted in the uncritical conviction of his mission and an enormous driving for recognition. The neuropsychiatric analysis of Hitler's personality could lead to a better explanation of the pathological traits of one of the most conspicuous historical personalities., (Copyright 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.)

This article reviews the history and evolution of the diagnosis of personality disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) from its first edition in 1952 through its fourth edition in 1994. The article also traces the earliest origins of personality disorders (e.g., Hippocrates) through the modern foundational works of Pritchard, Schneider, and Horney. Analysis of the changes across the editions of the DSM suggest slow but steady progress in the clarification and classification of personality disorders, although formidable challenges remain. A call for future research as to reliability and validity of personality disorders is made, and suggestions for research are offered.