All people have personalities that are recognizable to others. Healthy personalities are broad and flexible, while remaining generally stable and consistent across interactions. Unhealthy personalities tend to be rigid and inflexible (e.g., the individual is characteristically self-defeating, or pervasively self-absorbed, or chronically untrusting of others), or so "chameleon-like" as not to have a stable, consistent presentation.

Personality dysfunction tends to manifest most problematically in the individual's closest relationships, while work-relations and acquaintanceships tend to be less troubled. In some case, the individual with the unhealthy personality style recognizes the dysfunctional tendency and feels desperate to change, but more often, it is those in close relation to these individuals who recognize the unhealthy pattern and urge (or threaten) them to "get help." In either case, where there is motivation to recognize and break free of limiting personality styles, positive transformation can be expected.