Book excerpt: The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders reviews and advances this innovative and increasingly popular scheme for diagnosing and evaluating personality disorders. The authors identify the multiple clinical, theoretical, and research paradigms that co-exist in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) and show how the model can aid the practicing mental health professional in evaluating and treating patients as well as its importance in stimulating research and theoretical understanding of this domain. This work explores and summarizes methods of personality assessment and psychiatric evaluation, research findings, and clinical applications of the AMPD, highlighting its usefulness to clinical teaching and supervision, forensic application, and current research. It is a go-to reference for experienced professionals and researchers, those who wish to learn this new diagnostic system, and for clinicians in training.