Personality Disorders

Personality disorders encompass an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture. This pattern is manifested in several areas.

cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events)
affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, liability, and appropriateness of emotional response)
interpersonal functioning
impulse control

The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

A pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of other such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by the following:

suspects, with sufficient bases, that other are exploiting, harming, or deceiving him or her
is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty of friends and associates
reluctant to confide in others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her

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