Dysfunctional Beliefs Differentiate among Personality Disorders

Cognitive Therapy hypothesizes that dysfunctional beliefs play an important role in many forms of psychopathology. Although there is empirical support for the role of dysfunctional beliefs in depression, until recently there has been little research into the role of dysfunctional beliefs in personality disorders. More than a decade ago,discrete sets of dysfunctional beliefs were hypothesized to play a role in each of the personality disorders (Beck, et al., 1990; Freeman, Pretzer, Fleming & Simon, 1990). Recent studies have supported these hypotheses for borderline PD (Aarntz, Dietzel & Dreessen, 1999), avoidant PD, dependent PD, obsessive-compulsive PD, narcissistic PD, and paranoid PD (Beck, Butler, Brown, Dahlsgaard, Newman & Beck, 2001). The other personality disorders were not studied due to an inadequate number of subjects. The findings support the hypothesis that dysfunctional beliefs are related to personality disorders but do not provide grounds for conclusions about causality or the effectiveness of CT as a treatment for individuals with personality disorders.

Arntz, A., Dietzel, R. & Dreessen, L. (1999). Assumptions in borderline personality disorder: Specificity, stability and relationship with etiological factors. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 545-557.

Beck, A. T., Butler, A. C., Brown, G. K., Dahlsgaard, K. K., Newman, C. F. & Beck, J. S. (2001). Dysfunctional beliefs discriminate personality disorders. Behaviour research and Therapy, 39, 1213-1225.

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