The comparison of alexithymia and brain-behavioral systems in persons with and without borderline and narcissistic personality traits

Personality disorders are specified according to defects in individual performance and pathological characteristics. The objective of this research was comparison of brain-behavioral systems and alexithymia in people with and without borderline and narcissistic personality traits.
The method of this study was causal-comparison. The population of research was all girls and boys students of Tabriz University in 2015, of this community, 250 people were selected via convenience sampling method and responded the SCID-II Structured Clinical Interview. 60 students who had the traits of narcissistic and borderline personality and 30 students without traits of narcissistic and borderline personality traits was selected and completed Jackson brain-behavioral systems and alexithymia questionnaires. Data was analyzed with multivariate analysis of variance and Bonferroni test.
Findings showed that two groups with borderline and narcissistic personality traits compared with the normal group are deficient in identifying and describing feelings. Also, focusing on external experiences was more in group with borderline personality traits as compared to normal subjects and group with narcissistic personality traits. Groups with borderline and narcissistic personality traits had higher level of behavioral activation system than normal subjects. Normal groups had higher level of flight system activity than subjects with borderline and narcissistic personality traits.
According to brain-behavioral systems function and alexithymia in subjects, before formation and consolidation of pathologic personality traits, these pathologic characteristics can be oriented and modified.