Personality disorders name persistent patterns in how a person relates to themselves, others, and the world — patterns so woven into identity that they are experienced not as symptoms but as self. The Sutras would recognize these as deeply grooved saṃskāra operating beneath the threshold of conscious choice. Understanding them requires both clinical precision and compassion: these patterns were once adaptive responses, and the person inhabiting them is not the same as the pattern itself.
Each step builds on the last.