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International Journal of Psychology & Behavior Analysis Volume 3 (2017), Article ID 3:IJPBA-124, 3 pages
https://doi.org/10.15344/2455-3867/2017/124
Commentary
Development of Personality Disorders: Identity as a Key Process

Ilaria Maria Antonietta Benzi* and Fabio Madeddu

Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy
Dr. Ilaria Maria Antonietta Benzi, Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy; E-mail: ilaria.benzi@unimib.it
02 February 2016; 07 March 2017; 09 March 2017
Benzi IMA, Madeddu F (2017) Development of Personality Disorders: Identity as a Key Process. Int J Psychol Behav Anal 3: 124. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15344/2455-3867/2017/124

Abstract

Currently, researchers and clinicians are conducting a wide-ranging reflection on personality disorders (PDs): significant aspects on this topic are the need to delineate the core domains that define personality pathology, as well as the demand to formulate a clinically relevant description of PDs. Within a dimensional perspective, given the evidence of a strong relationship between identity pathology and PDs, identity emerges as a key process, considering both the subjective experience (integration vs. diffusion) and the social-cognitive perspectives (degrees of development of identity processes), in unravelling aspects of the self and interpersonal impairment in personality pathology.