회피성 인격장애의 치료

Treatment of Avoidant Personality Disorder

The Avoidant Personality Disorder began to be appeared as a diagnostic entity in the DSMIII. As such, there are only limited amount of surveys in the treatment of this particular disease given that only a few more years than a decade has been passed since it was classified as a disease. Pharmacotherapy and some group oriented behavioral methods were tried. And some psychodynamic correlations were suggested. However, like any other personality problem, this kind of illness seems to have “psychic conflict” being main cause and so the solution of the problem seems to lie in the area o f psychotherapeutic approach. As it is said, “psychoanalysis is character analysis”. Although the theory of character has its own limitation understandably, at the least at the moment psychoanalytic approach seems to be the best therapeutic option for this type o f personality disorder. Traditionally and currently, there has not been any specific therapeutic suggestion only for the Avoidant Personality Disorder, and yet some particular technical issues were discussed for a group of personality disorder to which the Avoidant Personality Disorder may belong. In this paper, I discussed theoretical views of character and personality disorder psychoanalytically, and also reviewed ways o f treatment for this particular illness. A clinical vignette was illustrated to enhance further understanding.