Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and impairing clinical disorder in childhood, often characterized by a heterogeneous symptomatic profile and high co-occurrence with other disorders. The present study introduces a new perspective on the description of OCD symptoms in youth, and empirically examines the value of a personality…

This paper addresses issues of infantile gender identity as they are demonstrated through group processes amongst the carers of disturbed adolescents. It uses this and other clinical material to explore gender narcissism--both male and female. It examines how such narcissism is linked to sado-masochism, and how it can impede a healthy development…

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (3rd ed.; MCMI-III) is a widely used psychological assessment of clinical and personality disorders. Unlike typical tests, the MCMI-III uses a base-rate score transformation to incorporate prior probabilities of disorder (i.e., base rates) in test output and diagnostic thresholds. The authors describe the…

This study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP; Clark, 1996) in 280 individuals who screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The SNAP validity, trait, temperament, and personality disorder (PD) scales were compared with scales on the Brief Form of the…

Objective: This study examined levels of dissociation in school-aged foster children who had been maltreated before age 5. Method: Data were collected from 118 children (age in years: M=9.34, SD=1.02) and their caregivers. Chi-Square and ANOVA were used to compare foster children (n=67) to community comparison children (n=51). Regression analyses…

This article describes the identification of a 10-item set of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II) items, which proved to be effective as a self-report assessment instrument in screening personality disorders. The item selection was based on the retrospective analyses of 495 SCID-II interviews. The…

The development of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) has fueled intense clinical interest in the construct of psychopathy. Unfortunately, a side effect of this interest has been conceptual confusion and, in particular, the conflating of measures with constructs. Indeed, the field is in danger of equating the PCL-R with…

This study examined the role of approval-of-aggression beliefs in the relationship between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior in an Asian sample (N = 809) comprising elementary children and middle school adolescents. Narcissistic exploitativeness was significantly and positively associated with both bullying behavior and…

Academic dishonesty is a significant problem among college students. Numerous factors affect levels of cheating. This study utilized an original survey on cheating and rationalization along with the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationships between rationalization, narcissism, and academic…

Background: A dimension of negatively oriented affect within oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms, which has been described as irritability, has been shown to predict depression and anxiety. Related constructs have been linked to temperament and personality constructs. However, only a few studies have examined the prediction from…

Factors associated with recent suicide attempts were examined in clients who sought treatment at an addictions facility between 2001 and 2008. Clients who reported being hospitalized for attempting suicide in the past year (n = 76) were compared to all other clients (n = 5914) on demographic, mental health, substance use, and problem gambling…

Background: There is little research on how specific borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms relate to suicide attempts or suicide and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) within adolescent populations, which is important to know given the recent proposal of an NSSI disorder. Even less well known is whether specific BPD symptoms distinguish NSSI…

The author describes a sub-group of anorexic patients who present themselves clinically as "invisible" and "insubstantial". The concept of "invisibility" is understood in terms of primitive object relations. The underpinning of this dynamic is a lack of separation and differentiation from mother and a consequent effort to live inside her skin. The…

Although large epidemiological data sets can inform research on the etiology and development of borderline personality disorder (BPD), they rarely include BPD measures. In some cases, however, proxy measures can be constructed using instruments already in these data sets. In this study, the authors developed and validated a self-report measure of…

The present study investigated the relations of self-reported and peer-nominated relational aggression (RA) with self-esteem and narcissism among 43 at-risk 16- to 18-year-olds. Self-reported and peer-nominated RA were positively intercorrelated, and each was positively correlated with narcissism. An interaction between self-esteem and narcissism…