Personality functioning occupies a contested but strategically important position across the depth-psychological corpus. In empirical psychodynamic research — most prominently in Leichsenring's 2008 meta-analysis and de Maat's 2009 systematic review — the term operates as a discrete outcome domain alongside symptom severity, target problems, and social functioning, serving as the measure most sensitive to structural characterological change. Leichsenring's data demonstrate that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LTPP) produces large effect sizes for personality functioning specifically in personality-disorder populations, and that LTPP is significantly superior to shorter-term methods on this dimension — a finding with far-reaching clinical implications. The term thus indexes something beyond symptom remission: durable reorganization of character structure. In Jungian typological discourse, personality functioning is recast in terms of differentiation of the four functions and the hierarchy of dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior processes; von Franz, Hillman, Thomson, and Quenk each explore how the relative development or suppression of these functions determines the coherence, flexibility, and pathological vulnerability of the personality. Hillman's archetypal psychology dissents from developmental and typological frameworks alike, arguing that personality is better understood through the multiplicity of 'partial' personalities — complexes, daimones — rather than through stages or functioning schemas. The term thus spans quantitative outcome research and qualitative depth inquiry, with the shared conviction that the personality is not a static given but a dynamic, improvable, or deteriorable configuration.
In the library
15 passages
LTPP was significantly superior to shorter-term methods of psychotherapy with regard to overall outcome, target problems, and personality functioning.
This passage advances the central empirical claim that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy produces measurably superior outcomes on personality functioning compared to briefer modalities, establishing personality functioning as the domain where depth of treatment matters most.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008thesis
personality functioning (rp=0.96; 95% CI, 0.84-0.99; P<.001, n=7). The between-group effect sizes were also large… the differences in effect size between LTPP and other forms of psychotherapy for overall outcome, target problems, and personality functioning were between 1.8 and 6.9 standard deviations.
This passage presents the quantitative magnitude of LTPP's advantage on personality functioning, showing an extraordinarily large between-group effect size that distinguishes this domain from symptom and social-functioning outcomes.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008thesis
Large effect sizes were also observed for personality functioning at posttest and for all outcome areas at follow-up.
This passage reports that LTPP alone yields large pre–post effect sizes for personality functioning in personality-disorder populations, with gains maintained at follow-up, affirming structural change as an achievable therapeutic goal.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008thesis
we assessed effect sizes separately for target problems, general psychiatric symptoms, personality functioning, and social functioning. This procedure was analogous to those in other meta-analyses of psychodynamic therapy.
This methodological passage establishes personality functioning as one of four distinct, independently measured outcome domains in the meta-analytic framework, legitimating it as a separable and measurable construct within psychodynamic research.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008supporting
LTPP yielded significant before-after effect sizes for all outcome domains with the exception of personality functioning.
This passage reveals that in the broader mixed-disorder sample, personality functioning was the one domain where LTPP did not reach statistical significance before–after, highlighting that character-level change requires specific patient-population conditions or sufficient treatment duration.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008supporting
personality is conceived less in terms of stages in life and development, of typologies of character and functioning, of psycho-energetics toward
Hillman's archetypal psychology explicitly repositions personality away from developmental stages and functioning typologies, arguing instead for a pluralistic model of partial personalities and soul-making, thereby contesting the dominant frameworks that underpin most personality functioning discourse.
personality is conceived less in terms of stages in life and development, of typologies of character and functioning, of psycho-energetics toward
This parallel passage in the Brief Account reiterates Hillman's critique of functioning-based personality models, anchoring the archetypal alternative to any schema that measures or stages psychological health through typological or developmental metrics.
Hillman, James, Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account, 1983thesis
Symptoms: SCL-90-R, GSI; Personality: IIP; Goal attainment: GAS
This systematic review table confirms that across long-term psychoanalytic therapy studies, personality functioning is routinely measured as a distinct outcome variable alongside symptom and goal-attainment measures, documenting the field's operationalization of the construct.
de Maat, Saskia, The Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychoanalytic Therapy: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies, 2009supporting
Personality: MMPI, affect consciousness measured… Severe pathology, as determined through SCID (personality disorder, 96%; depression, 52%; anxiety, 20%)
This review entry illustrates the use of multi-method personality assessment instruments in long-term psychoanalytic outcome research, underscoring personality functioning as a trackable, empirically assessable dimension even in severely disordered populations.
de Maat, Saskia, The Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychoanalytic Therapy: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies, 2009supporting
a consolidated nucleus of the personality that is no longer identified with any of the functions… the solution to the problem of the functions is the first step, but it is enormously difficult to get
Von Franz frames mature personality functioning as the integration of all four psychological functions into a consolidated, non-identified nucleus — the quintessentia — positioning functional differentiation as a prerequisite but not the endpoint of psychological development.
Marie-Louise von Franz, James Hillman, Lectures on Jung's Typology, 2013supporting
Where is his greatest suffering? Where does he feel that he always knocks his head against the obstacle and suffers hell? That generally points to the inferior function.
Von Franz proposes that the signature of deficient personality functioning is locatable precisely at the inferior function — the domain of greatest suffering — making typological diagnosis a clinical instrument for identifying structural weakness.
Marie-Louise von Franz, James Hillman, Lectures on Jung's Typology, 2013supporting
Symptoms: CGI; Personality: CGI; Social functioning: CGI
This table entry documents the use of global clinical impression ratings to track personality-level change across retrospective psychoanalytic cohort studies, illustrating the operationalization challenges inherent in measuring personality functioning outcomes.
de Maat, Saskia, The Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychoanalytic Therapy: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies, 2009supporting
fathomless transformations of personality, like sudden conversions and other far-reaching changes of mind, originate in the attractive power of a collective image… the entire personality is disintegrated.
Jung identifies the disruption of personality functioning through identification with collective unconscious contents, framing disintegration as the pathological extreme against which integrated, individuated functioning is defined.
Jung, Carl Gustav, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1953supporting
except for personality functioning, more than 300 studies would need to be added to change the results of the meta-analysis from significance to nonsignificance.
This fail-safe analysis reveals that the personality functioning outcome carries greater statistical fragility than other domains, noting its comparatively smaller evidence base while affirming the robustness of all other outcome areas.
Leichsenring, Falk, Effectiveness of Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-analysis, 2008aside
The consistent trend toward larger effect sizes at follow-up suggests that psychodynamic therapy sets in motion psychological processes that lead to ongoing change, even
Shedler's finding that psychodynamic therapy effects grow after termination implies a process of continuing structural reorganization consistent with personality-level change, though personality functioning is not the explicit measure here.
Shedler, Jonathan, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, 2010aside