Abstract

In clinical practice, psychiatrists, psychologists and other professionals claim, when appropriate, that an individual has an immature personality. Consulting the ICD-10 or the DSM-5, we found that IPD is not specifically referenced in the DSM-5 and, although it is referenced in the ICD-10, which includes, in Other Personality Disorders (F60.8), the “eccentric, haltlose type, immature, narcissistic, passive-aggressive and psychoneurotic personality (disorder)”, there is no explanation of the criteria of any of the personality disorder (PD) included in F60.8. This paper describes the case studies of two patients and aims to help to fill a gap in the major classifications of mental disorders. Empirical studies are needed to better define the diagnostic criteria and the fundamental diagnostic criteria for a better structuring of immature personality disorder.

Growing up involves internalizing norms and values that allow the ego to adjust to the demands imposed by social norm. For this purpose, it is important that individuals internalize an attitudinal morality-impregnated with values-that fosters moral autonomy and leads them to adopt responsible behavior. It is common to affirm, regarding someone who displays childish or irresponsible behavior that this person is immature, or seems to be immature. Clinical experience shows that psychiatrists, psychologists, and other professionals also express that a certain individual has an immature personality. And this diagnosis is made, not in the sense that the individual has one or another characteristic that is immature, but rather as a whole, in the sense of what is understood as personality, the individual has an immature personality. More correctly, they have an immature personality disorder (IPD). In other words, the individual presents personality traits stable patterns of comprehension, relation, and thought regarding the surrounding environment and themselves which are expressed in a wide range of social and personal contexts. And, in this case, they determine the existence of a personality disorder in the individual: personality traits are inflexible and maladaptive, causing a significant functional deficit or subjective ill-being.