Personality disorders and culture: contemporary clinical views (Part A).
This article reviews the basic concepts surrounding the clinical relationships between culture and personality disorders (PDs). Culture plays a significant role in the construction of self-concept and self-image, the egocentric/sociocentric dichotomy, and the determination of biases in the clinical study of PDs. Cultural contextualization is, therefore, crucial in the demarcation between normal and abnormal personalities. From a clinical perspective, culture has three roles vis-à-vis the psychopathology of personality: (a) as an interpretive/explanatory tool; (b) as a pathogenic/pathoplastic agent; and (c) as a diagnostic/nosological factor. The first of two parts, this article examines the interpretive/explanatory and pathogenic/pathoplastic roles, substantiated by clinical examples gleaned from the existing literature.
Alarcón
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Psychiatry Service (116A), Atlanta VAMC, Atlanta, GA 30033, USA.
Foulks
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EF
D003469:Culture; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology