Journal of Personality Disorders, 33, 1-12, 2019 © 2019 The Guilford Press 1 From GGZ Friesland, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (M. W., S. S.); and Department of Psychiatry, Am- sterdam Public Health Research Institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the Department of Research & Innovation GGZ InGeest Specialist Mental Healthcare, Amsterdam (W. L., J. H. S., N. D.). Address correspondence to M. Wildschut, GGZ Friesland, Borniastraat 34b, 8934 AD Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. E-mail: Marleen.Wildschut@ggzfriesland.nl WILDSCHUT ET AL. AN EMOTIONAL NEGLECT–PERSONALITY DISORDER APPROACH AN EMOTIONAL NEGLECT–PERSONALITY DISORDER APPROACH: QUANTIFYING A DIMENSIONAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODEL OF TRAUMA-RELATED AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS Marleen Wildschut, MSc, Sanne Swart, MSc, Willemien Langeland, PhD, Jan H. Smit, PhD, and Nel Draijer, PhD Are personality disorders (PDs) associated with emotional neglect? Draijer (2003) developed a dimensional model of trauma-related disorders and PD. The first dimension consists of the severity of the trauma endured. The sec- ond dimension consists of emotional neglect, which is assumed to be related primarily to personality pathology. In this article, we investigate whether an association between retrospective reports of emotional neglect and the presence and severity of PD exists. A sample of 150 patients was systemati- cally assessed. Results indicate that there is little evidence to support a link between emotional neglect and problematic personality functioning at the disorder level; however, there might be a link between emotional neglect and problematic personality functioning in a dimensional way. Findings indicate a relationship between lack of parental warmth and problematic personality functioning, supporting the existence of the emotional neglect- axis of the proposed model in a dimensional framework of viewing person- ality pathology. Keywords: emotional neglect, personality disorders, maladaptive personality functioning, trauma-related disorders, childhood maltreatment As a means of better understanding clinical features in survivors of early childhood trauma and emotional neglect across trauma-related disorders and PD and to be able to indicate treatment, Draijer (2003) proposed a two- dimensional model (see Figure 1; Wildschut, Langeland, Smit, & Draijer, 2014). The first dimension, situated on the y-axis, consists of the severity of the trauma endured. This severity is supposed to fluctuate depending on fac- tors such as the age at which the trauma occurred, whether it was physically intrusive, how much force was used, how frequently it occurred, the relation-