The mania and ludus love styles are central to pathological personality traits

Abstract

If love is fundamentally important, those with pathological personality traits should desire to find it like anyone else. However, people's pathologies may influence their love styles leading to problematic relationship patterns. We examined how pathological personality traits were associated with love styles in adolescents (N = 311). While each personality pathology was associated with somewhat unique forms of love, collectively they were all associated with the mania love style. The traits, sans negative affectivity, were also associated with the ludus love style. And, limited detachment and disinhibition were linked to the eros love style. Results are discussed in terms of how learning about the potentially problematic love styles associated with pathological personality traits can inform interventions to improve an important outcome in people's lives.