Interpersonal Diagnosis of Psychopathology

Interpersonal diagnosis is a broad term encompassing a range of methods and techniques for assessing and describing personality and psychopathology that directly inform prognosis and treatment planning. This chapter reviews the origins of interpersonal diagnosis found in the highly generative early works of Harry Stack Sullivan and Timothy Leary, and then summarizes contemporary conceptual and methodological advances in interpersonal diagnosis, including interpersonal pathoplasticity, intraindividual variability of interpersonal behavior, and interpersonal behavioral signatures. The chapter culminates with a discussion of how contemporary interpersonal diagnosis can serve as an integrative nexus for the study of personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy.