The concept of minimal emotional dysfunctions (MED) refers to traditional psychopathology in order to describe, classify, and understand personality disorders. Emotional dysfunctions encompass disorders of affect predominance, production, expression, experience, modulation, and regulation. MED can explain the dimensional nature of personality disorders, their multidimensionality and problems with categorical classifications. It can stimulate research on the etiology of personality disorders in reference to modern developmental brain research and trauma psychology. It can guide new developments in pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. It is suggested to focus on MED in future developments of the description and classification of personality disorders.
