Personality disorders are highly prevalent and cause a substantial amount of human suffering and harm-not only to the individuals and families directly affected, but also to the population at large. These disorders generally have a heritability rate that is in excess of fifty percent, strongly suggesting that the behavioral disturbance they cause have a significant biomedical etiology. However, knowledge about the biological nature of personality disorders-and effective treatment of the latter-is significantly lacking. Although basic biological principles have overall served well in the foundation of psychiatry, they have received relatively little attention with regard to the areas of personality, temperament, and personality disorders.
Neurobiology of Personality Disorders is the first book to focus specifically on the neurobiology of disturbed personality. It provides a thorough outline of the principles of neural science that mediate personality and describe what is currently known about how these biological processes are impaired in individuals with personality disorders. Its team of editors and authors are among the most frequently published and highly renowned international neuroscientists in the field of personality disorders, and its coverage of topics is comprehensive, authoritative, and heuristic.

Christian Schmahl is Professor of Experimental Psychopathology and Medical Director of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. His research focus is on emotion regulation, self-injurious behavior and dissociation as well as the interaction of neurobiology and psychotherapy in Borderline Personality Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Since 2015 he is spokesperson of the Clinical Research Unit "Mechanisms of Disturbed Emotion Processing in BPD". He has published more than 150 articles and book chapters.
Robert O. Friedel is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia USA. His primary focus of academic work has been in the neurobiological basis and pharmacological treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. He received his medical training at Duke University and his research training in biology at Duke and at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Friedel served as chair of the departments of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Michigan, where he was also Executive Director of the Mental Health Research Institute, and chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, books and book chapters.
K. Luan Phan, MD is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is focused on the neuroscience of emotion and emotion-cognition interactions, especially emotion regulation, and in relation of psychopathology and treatment interventions. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles.

Preface
1. Neurocircuitry of Affective, Cognitive, Regulatory Systems
Annmarie McNamara and K. Luan Phan
2. The Fundamentals of Brain Neurotransmission
Robert O. Friedel and Stephen M. Stahl
3. Genetics of Personality Disorders
Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud and Kenneth S. Kendler
4. Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches to Personality Disorders
Andrew Poppe and Angus W. MacDonald III
5. Minding the Emotional Thermostat: Integrating social cognitive and affective neuroscience evidence to form a model of the cognitive control of emotion
Bryan T. Denny and Kevin N. Ochsner
6. The Neurobiology of Attachment and Mentalizing: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective
Patrick Luyten and Peter Fonagy
7. Emotion Regulation
Katja Bertsch, Karold Koenigsberg, Inga Niedtfeld, and Christian Schmahl
8. The Clinical Neuroscience of Impulsive Aggression
Royce Lee, Jennifer R. Fanning, and Emil F. Coccaro
9. Social Cognition in Personality Disorders
Stefanie Lis, Nicole E. Derish, M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez
10. Attachment in Personality Disorders
M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez, Nicole E. Derish, Nerea Palomares, Sukhbir Kaur, Armando Cuesta-Diaz, and Stefanie Lis
11. Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self Injury
Paul Soloff, Christian Schmahl
12. The Neurobiology and Genetics of Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Daniel R. Rossell and Larry J. Siever
13. The Neurobiological Basis of Borderline Personality Disorder
Robert O. Friedel, Christian Schmahl, and Marijn Distel
14. The Neurobiology of antisocial Disorder Focusing on Psychopathy
Michael Baliousis, Najat Khalifa, and Birgit Vollm
15. The Neurobiological Basis of Avoidant Personality Disorder
Theresa Wilberg and Kenneth Silk
16. Established and Novel Pharmacological Approaches to the Treatment of Personality Disorders
S. Charles Schulz and Robert O. Friedel
17. Neurobiological Underpinnings of Psychosocial Treatment in Personality Disorders
Marianne Goodman, Jennifer Chen, and Erin A. Hazlett
18. Conclusion and Future Directions
Robert O. Friedel, K. Luan Pham, and Christian Schmahl