identical twins and narcissism.

It is not for everybody. Dry and not very entertaining.

marycarterpaint wrote:this pic, from the second article summarizes their research
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... -103-g001/

taking a harder look at this pic reveals an interesting underlying genetic organization.

there are three 'common genetic factors', and these are described as Ac1, Ac2, and Ac3.
in addition, there are unique genetic factors associated with most but not all disorders.

Ac1 most strongly affects: (attention seeking)
paranoid = .30
histrionic = .49
borderline = .32
narcissistic = .35
dependent = .29
obsessive = .29

Ac2 most strongly affects: (antisocial)
borderline = .43
antisocial = .63

Ac3 most strongly affects: (avoidant)
Schizoid = .37
Avoidant = .59

if you consider that each of the common factors also has a single disorder associated that does not include a specific genetic factor (As=0), then that disorder can be considered the 'archetype' for the common factor. so you have the histrionic factor (which i have called attention seeking), and you have the antisocial and avoidant common factors. By this criterion, an antisocial is 'created' in an individual with the Ac2 common factor, and when the environment is suitable for his/her development down this path. The borderline has the same antisocial common factor, but also has the attention seeking common factor and an independent 'unique' As factor specific for this disorder.

that is my interpretation of this data, and also describes how the personality disorders could be clustered, with some disorders relating genetically (and therefore, neurochemically or neurostructurally) to each other. it would be predicted that disorders that have similar underlying genetic causes would be treated pharmaceutically/therapeutically in similar ways.

^^
You have some good remarks.
In fact, in my personal map of those things, I already had those three disorders put as archetypes.
Of course, my method was more cultural than scientific, but it is interesting to see some backing of it.
I also notice that schizotypal does not have any of those genes, which is also in accord with another theory of mine.

Although there is a reason those genes appeared in the first place, so trying to treat pharmaceutically (or something similar) might cause a lot of other problems and you would basically loose something useful. I don't really like scientist hardcore messing with something they barely understand. Sounds like hubris to me. Anyway, I probably won't be there when that happens.