Universal norms of behavior

A book that deals with personality as its core construct cannot avoid dealing with disordered personality as well, especially as the latter is to a certain extent socially and variously defined. Personality disorders were defined in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (American Psychiatric Association, 1980) as “personality traits [that] are inflexible and maladaptive and cause either significant impairment in social and occupational functioning or subjective distress” (p. 305). Norms for civil behavior are constantly evolving. From era to era, each society imposes shifting normative behavioral schemas on its members as they engage in routine social and occupational activities. If we accept this principle, the behavioral patterns defining various personality disorders evolve historically but also vary cross-culturally. Drastic, collective divergence from those norms gives rise to new, ultimately respectable cultural models of personality disorder – as well as to “scandal” and moral outrage. In the light of recent advances in molecular genetic and epigenetic research, these principles have become suspect.