This video answers the question: What was passiveaggressive personality disorder? I've also had some other questions about the same construct like: What is passiveaggressive personality? What is the history was behind passiveaggressive personality disorder? Why is it no longer in the DSM? The term passiveaggressive was first used clinically speaking during World War II and it was used to describe soldiers who refused to comply with the orders of officers, but the construct of passive aggressive actually existed before that. It was really central to some of the clinical theory that we saw from that time period. Passiveaggressive behavior has been shown to undermine successful treatment. If somebody has another disorder, like a major mood disorder, passiveaggressive behavior can get in the way of that disorder being treated. The construct is important but, of course, the personality disorder is no longer in the DSM.


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Hopwood, C., & Wright, A. C. (2012). A Comparison of Passive–Aggressive and Negativistic Personality Disorders. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(3), 296–303.

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