Proposal of a dimensional model of personality disorders

During recent years there has been a growing interest on several aspects regarding psychopathology in general and particularly with personality disorders, such as dual psychopathology, comorbidity and dimensional models. Going from the Eysenck's three-factor model to the Fiske's five-factor one, from the Cloninger's psychobiological model to the Millon's biosocial one, a wide variety of personality analysis models, as well as dimensions to which the different personality disorders should be anchored, have been proposed. Here, we propose a dimensional model for personality disorders based on DSM-IV criteria, which are cognitive style (field dependence-independence), prevalent emotion (anger-fear), interpersonal style (submissiveness-dominance), and impulse control (impulsiveness-compulsiveness). We consider that these dimensions are related to different levels of cerebral complexity, assuming that evolution operates under the redundancy principle. Based on these dimensions, a bimodal model in which antisocial personality (high field dependence, anger, dominance, and impulsiveness) and schizotypal personality (low field dependence, fear, submissiveness, and compulsiveness) would be anchored in each extreme is proposed. Between these two extremes, the rest of personality disorders, such as borderline, paranoid, narcissist, histrionic, dependent, passive-aggressive, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive, paranoid, and schizoid, would be anchored.