The diagnosis of hysterical personality disorder: A study of attitudes

The concept of personality disorder must, as other psychiatric diagnoses, be evaluated in terms of reliability, utility, and validity. In recent years, there has been growing interest in such issues for personality diagnoses in general^1,2 and for obsessive-compulsive,^3-6 antisocial,⁷ and hysterical personality disorders in particular. Since these diagnoses rest on the judgment that an individual is deviant in respect of traits shared to a greater or lesser degree by everyone, the diagnostic process itself, the exercise whereby that judgment is made, should receive particular study. In this way, we might learn which clinical features can be reliably recognized and, thus, used to form the basis for operational definitions of personality disorders. As an initial step in such research, a group of psychiatrists was asked to comment on several factors important in the diagnosis of hysterical personality disorder.