What Are Personality Disorders? How Should They Be Conceptualized, And How Should They Be Assessed And Diagnosed In Clinical Practice? For Over A Century These Questions Have Been At The Heart Of Psychological Science. Yet Even Today, As The Recent Controversy Over Proposed Changes To The Classification Of Personality Disorders In Dsm-5 Attests, There Is Hardly Consensus On The Answers. This Groundbreaking Text Offers A Comprehensive And Provocative Tour Of A Field That Is Ripe For Integration. Contributors Who Rank Among The World's Most Prestigious Clinical And Personality Psychologists Guide Readers Through The State Of Our Knowledge Of Personality Disorders, From Conceptual And Theoretical Concerns To The Practical Problems Faced By Assessing Clinicians. They Address The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Categorical And Dimensional Approaches To Diagnosing Personality Pathology Used In The Standard Diagnostic Manuals, As Well As The Hybrid Model Described In Section Iii Of Dsm-5. Recent Advances In Statistical, Methodological, And Biogenetic Research Strategies Are Applied To The Study Of Personality Disorders, With A Focus On Clinical And Empirical Approaches To Assessment And Diagnosis. Theorists Describe How Psychodynamic, Attachment, Interpersonal, Evolutionary, And Cognitive Processing Approaches Offer Surprisingly Similar Models Of Conceptualizing And Treating Personality Disorders. -- Publisher's Description The Value Of Retaining Personality Disorder Diagnoses -- A Critical Evaluation Of Retaining Personality Categories And Types -- The Role Of Traits In Describing, Assessing, And Understanding Personality Pathology -- A Critical Evaluation Of Moving Toward A Trait System For Personality Disorder Assessment -- At The Nexus Of Science And Practice : Answering Basic Clinical Questions In Personality Disorder Assessment And Diagnosis With Quantitative Modeling Techniques -- Lessons Learned From Longitudinal Studies Of Personality Disorders -- Biological Bases Of Personality Disorders -- Object Relations Theory And Personality Disorders : Internal Representations And Defense Mechanisms. Integrating Clinical And Empirical Perspectives On Personality : The Shedler-westen Assessment Procedure (swap) -- Assessing Explicit And Implicit Processes In Personality Pathology -- Process Focused Assessment Of Personality Pathology -- An Integrative, Psychodynamic Framework Of Personality Pathology -- An Integrative Attachment Theory Framework Of Personality Disorders -- An Integrative Interpersonal Framework Of Personality Pathology -- An Integrating And Comprehensive Model Of Personality Pathology Based On Evolutionary Theory -- The Cognitive-affective Processing System Model Of Personality Pathology : Ready-made For Theoretical Integration -- The Link Between Personality Theory And Psychological Treatment : A Shifting Terrain. Edited By Steven K. Huprich. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.