Can People Switch Between Incompatible Disorders (Narcissist, Psychopath, Borderline)?
Professor Sam Vaknin explains that mental health diagnoses have three elements: etiology, psychodynamics, and behavioral manifestations. When comorbidities occur, one disorder is dominant and dictates the patient’s behaviors, while the other disorder contributes only in specific circumstances. Transitioning between self-states in personality disorders involves temporary adoption of behaviors from other disorders, but does not signify a permanent shift in diagnosis. These self-states are reactive and self-limiting, and do not change the patient’s core personality disorder.