Dependent Personality Disorder
Key points
- Clinical interest in dependent personality disorder has existed since Abraham first described the oral character.
- As a disorder, the personality type first appeared in a War Department Technical Bulletin in 1945 and later in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1952 (American Psychiatric Association 1952) as a subtype of passive-aggressive personality disorder.
- Since then, a surprising number of studies have upheld the descriptive validity of dependent personality traits, viewed as submissiveness, oral character traits, oral dependence, or passive dependence, or as a constellation of both pathological and adaptive traits under the rubric dependency.
- The description overlaps that of asthenic personality disorder in the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, which emphasizes compliance and a weak response to the demands of daily life.
Dependent Personality Disorder Introduction
J. Christopher Perry, M.P.H., M.D.
Clinical interest in dependent personality disorder has existed since Abraham first described the oral character. As a disorder, the personality type first appeared in a War Department Technical Bulletin in 1945 and later in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1952 (American Psychiatric Association 1952) as a subtype of passive-aggressive personality disorder. Since then, a surprising number of studies have upheld the descriptive validity of dependent personality traits, viewed as submissiveness, oral character traits, oral dependence, or passive dependence, or as a constellation of both pathological and adaptive traits under the rubric dependency.
Written and revised by
David Cohen, M.D.
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