Interpersonal Aspects of DSM-III Axis II: Theoretical Hypotheses and Empirical Findings

In recent years several authors have attempted to map correspondences between interpersonal models and psychiatric classifications. Morey was the first to try this empirically, using, for purposes of comparison, interpersonal (ICL) and DSM-III (MCMI) approaches to the classification of personality disorders. He showed that the two approaches did not converge as much as expected; in particular, it appeared that DSM-III personality disorders were not as differentiated with regard to affiliative needs as had been hypothesized. The present study set out to determine if Morey's findings could be replicated in a different population, using a more suitable assessment procedure for DSM-III personality disorders (SIDP). Our study did corroborate Morey s main findings, although we found that DSM-III personality disorders were even less differentiated with regard to affiliative needs than Morey's findings suggest. This study concludes that interpersonal and DSM-III approaches to personality taxonomy are complementary rather than interchangeable. This is of special interest whenever interpersonal behavior is the focus of treatment.