Pluzhnikov, Ilia V.

The article presents the overview of the basic approaches, concepts and directions in studying personality in neuropsychology. Neuropsychiatric approach is based on phenomenological description of personality disorders in patients with various brain damages. Neuropsychological studies of personality held in A.R. Luria school that are mainly present in works under E.D. Homskaya guidance, in order to experimentally study brain organization of personality suggest using structural-functional model that includes emotional, motivational and executive processes and self-awareness. Aphasiology postulates, that personality disorders are secondary to communication disabilities that occur in speech pathology. Finally, neuropsychoanalysis focuses on cerebral mechanisms of unconscious processes and personality functioning in different pathological models. The paper presents the results of the study held. With the use of neuropsychological syndrome analysis method 50 young adult male patients have been studied with pathocharacterological spectrum disorders divided in two groups: schizoid personality disorder (30 patients) and schizotypal personality disorder (20 patients). It has been established that both groups have specific cognitive disturbances that indicate frontal-parietal-thalamic connections. Lateral differences are revealed: neuropsychological symptoms that are associated with left hemisphere dysfunction are specific for schizotypal personality disorder; neurocognitive deficit that is associated with right hemisphere is specific for patients with schizoid personality disorder. Perspectives of personality neuropsychology are discussed.

The article is dedicated to problem in usage of main principals of syndrome neuropsychological analysis in psychiatry. Main requirements for realization of A.R. Luria’s syndrome approach are given: accountancy of psychopathology, conceptualization of brain functioning particularities, and special attention to the researched psychological reality. The prospects for further development of neuropsychology in psychiatry, including the assessment and theoretical perspectives, are observed.