Personality Disorders in Children and Adolescents A unifying concept of personality disorder (PD) does exist, despite numerous variations, according to a recent literaturereview by Hill and Rutter (1). PDs are defined as “pervasiveand persistent abnormalities of overall personality function-ing that cause social impairment and/or subjective distress”(1). These dysfunctions are not due to any major mentaldisorder. DSM-IV defines PD as an enduring pattern of innerexperience and behaviour affecting cognition, affectivity,interpersonal functioning, and/or impulse control. Similarly,Kernberg (6), one of the key authors in the literature onpersonality disturbances in children, refers to PD as a set ofrigid and long-lasting maladaptive traits. Even from a devel-opmental perspective, these traits appear pathological. Forpatients with PD, development proceeds, but along pathologi-cal lines (6).