An Examination of Cermak's Conceptualization of Codependency as Personality Disorder.

Dr. Cermak, in his book "Diagnosing and Treating Codependence" (1986), has argued for the inclusion of codependency as a separate personality disorder worthy of inclusion in the diagnostic and statistical manual. He states that codependence is a recognizable, differentially diagnosed-personality disorder typically found within most chemically dependent effected families. This paper is an attempt to examine his proposed diagnostic criteria from a clinical and prior empirical research standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]