Retzlaff (1995) recommends that, when interpreting the personality disorder scales, practitioners should first check to see whether any of the Severe Personality Disorder scales are elevated. If so, this strongly suggests that one or more of the Clinical Personality Pattern scales will also be elevated. However, the high scale(s) on the Severe Personality Disorder section should take precedence over equivalently elevated scales on the Clinical Personality Pattern scales. The Clinical Personality Pattern scales then serve to color or elaborate on the elevation(s) on the Severe Personality Disorder scale(s). The primary focus for diagnosis, then, should be to rely on the Severe Personality Disorder elevation unless elevations on other categories of scales were extremely elevated compared to the Severe Personality Disorder scales. When that occurs, the extremely elevated scales would take on greater interpretive meaning compared to the more moderately elevated Severe Personality Disorder scale(s). (Interpretive descriptions of each of these scales can be found in the next section.) If there are no elevations on the Severe Personality Disorder scales, practitioners should interpret any elevations on the Clinical Personality Pattern scales.