Abstract
Theories of personality and its disorders need, from time to time, to be revised and updated according to new empirical and conceptual developments. Such development has taken place in the realms of affective neuroscience, evolution, and social cognition. In this article, we outline a new personality theory, which claims that phenomena we usually ascribe to the concept personality are best understood by postulating a web consisting of three major constituents: temperament (mainly primary emotions), attachment, and self-consciousness (mentalizing). We describe these constituents, their neurobiological underpinnings, the subjective experiences they evoke, and their behavioral implications. We discuss the relevance of the espoused theory in the field of personality disorders with references to borderline, narcissistic, and avoidant personality disorders as well as the DSM-5 alternative model. Implications for social psychology, psychotherapy, and common sense self-understanding are outlined. The theory aims to bridge previous contradictions between natural sciences and hermeneutics by its propositions of the evolution of self-consciousness.
Highlights
What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: The beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?– Shakespeare, Hamlet, II. 2This article concerns the concept of personality, its disorders, and the phenomena it claims to cover
We outline the content of the major constituents of personality, which can be organized according to a temperamentattachment-mentalizing (TAM) theory
We have outlined what we consider as the three major constituents of personality through integrating knowledge from evolutionary theory, neuroscience, developmental psychology, philosophy of mind, psychopathology, and personality and social psychology
Summary
What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: The beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?. 2. This article concerns the concept of personality, its disorders, and the phenomena it claims to cover. We outline the content of the major constituents of personality, which can be organized according to a temperamentattachment-mentalizing (TAM) theory. The theory aims to encompass normal as well as pathological phenomena of personality. We discuss the implications of the TAM theory as well as its explanatory power for understanding personality disorders.
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