Diagnosis of personality disorders: Selected methods and models of assessment

Both clinical and theoretical aspects of the problems of people suffering from personality disorders attract researchers’ attention. An attempt to modify the current classification systems confronts scholars with the problems of the uncertain empirical status of the criteria for diagnosing this group of disorders and the imperfection of assessment instruments. The text is an introduction to a volume of articles devoted to personality disorders, particularly to historical and theoretical conceptions of personality disorders, instruments enabling the diagnosis of personality disorders and the assessment of cognitive schemas specific to personality disorders (in the light of both Beck’s cognitive theory and the Young schema theory).