Personality disorders. Modern approach. This question can be opened with the definition of A.B. Smulevich: “Personality disorders, or psychopathy, are pathological conditions characterized by disharmony of mental makeup and representing a permanent, often innate property of an individual that persists throughout life.” The author emphasizes that personality changes may vary throughout life, i.e. may become less obvious at a certain age (more often on average) or, on the contrary, intensify. And personality disorders, unlike neurotic disorders, are egosyntonic, i.e. acceptable to the individual, not accepting the characteristics of a disease requiring medical or psychological assistance. This diagnosis is made in cases where pathological changes are so pronounced that they interfere with full adaptation in society, thus, social criteria are necessary for their diagnosis. Personality disorders are currently defined according to the World Health Organization's ICD-10 and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-4. According to ICD-10: “Personality disorder is a severe disturbance of the characterological constitution and behavioral tendencies of an individual, usually involving several areas of personality and almost always accompanied by personal and social disintegration. Personality disorder usually begins in late childhood or adolescence and continues into adulthood. At the same time, conditions that are not directly explained by extensive brain damage or disease or other mental disorder and satisfy the following criteria: a) marked disharmony in personal attitudes and behavior, usually involving several areas of functioning, for example, affectivity, excitability, impulse control, processes. perception and thinking, as well as the style of relating to other people; in different cultural conditions it may be necessary to develop special criteria regarding social norms; b) the chronic nature of the abnormal style of behavior, which arose long ago and is not limited to episodes of mental illness; c) the abnormal style of behavior is pervasive and clearly disrupts adaptation to a wide range of personal and social situations; d) the above-mentioned manifestations always begin in childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood; e) the disorder leads to significant personal distress, but this may only become apparent later in the course of time; f) the disorder is usually, but not always, accompanied by significant deterioration in professional and social productivity" (ICD-10). Personality disorder may be one of the most striking illustrations of Beck's concept of "schema." Schemas (specific rules that govern information processing and behavior) can be divided into a number of categories, such as family, personality, cultural, gender, religious, or occupational schemas. If all these schemas are derived from behavior and assessed, then the position of certain schemas on the continuum from explicit to latent or latent and their position on the continuum from “frozen” to changeable may serve as a parameter that we can use in understanding the patient's problems. Considering the permanent nature of the problems and the cost of inconvenience that these patients pay, one can ask the question: why and why do these abnormal forms of behavior persist? They create difficulties at work or in their personal life. Sometimes they are set by society (for example, teachers encourage a child who may be called “a boy who does not fool around”, “a boy who is not lazy like others”, “a diligent boy who gets only excellent grades”). Often a person with a personality disorder understands that their patterns are wrong, but finds it very difficult to change them. Since the problem may be.