Personality Disorders
One of my many interests is psychology and in particular personality disorders.
Before I continue - I wish to make it transparently clear I am not an expert on personality disorders merely a person with a curiosity about the intricacies of human nature and behaviour. I make no claims to specific expertise other than an interest in how and why people are the way they are. I studied psychology and gleaned much knowledge from the actual work I did in violence prevention and latterly my work in mental health.
Personality is one’s set of stable, predictable emotional and behavioural traits. Personality disorders involve deeply ingrained, inflexible patterns of relating to others that are maladaptive and cause significant impairment in social or occupational functioning.
The disorders include marked limitations in problem solving and low stress tolerance.
Patients with personality disorders lack insight about their problems; their symptoms are either ego-syntonic or viewed as immutable. They have a rigid view of themselves and others and around their fixed patterns have little insight. Patients with personality disorders
are vulnerable to developing symptoms of Axis I disorders during stress. Retrieved from
Most people will have knowingly or unknowingly met a person with a personality disorder.
I have worked and lived with abusive people and am always interested in what drives them. What beliefs do they hold?
What sort of environment have they been brought up in, what experiences in life have impacted on them to create the persons they are today? Do they have a personality disorder or are they a product of their family of origin? What separates a person with a personality disorder from a person who is abusive?
There is a checklist to establish if a person has a personality disorder. The following is a general description according to the DSM 5. The DSM 5 is a manual put together by the APA (American Psychiatric Association);
The essential features of a personality disorder are impairments in personality (self and interpersonal) functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits. To diagnose a personality disorder, the following criteria must be met:
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Significant impairments in self (identity or self-direction) and interpersonal (empathy or intimacy) functioning.
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One or more pathological personality trait domains or trait facets.
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The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are relatively stable across time and consistent across situations.
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The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are not better understood as normative for the individual‟s developmental stage or socio- cultural environment.
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The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are not solely due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., severe head trauma).
Are people capable of changing certain behaviours in themselves? if not then why not? Those that can change i.e. develop insight, have made significant personal growth and development and have gone on to better themselves. The fact that some people can make behavioural changes would be a likely indication that they don't have a personality disorder.
Some have gotten worse and drift through life with a trail of negative history and consequences wherever they go blaming and citing others for their problems and not themselves. They take no responsibility for their actions. Some have insight, some haven't. Some develop empathy and some don't. The ones that don't have empathy are the ones to be concerned about. This often indicates a personality disorder.
Many people have odd tendencies and quirks; these are not pathological unless they cause
significant distress or impairment in daily functioning. Retrieved from:http://www.mhprofessional.come
Then there are other people who just seem to go through life and largely appear to travel along on their journey in mediocrity. No significant bad things have happened to them, nor significant good things. Why is this...........?
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Lack of Empathy
Narcissists' Lack of Empathy Detected in Brain Scans http://sco.lt/7yfVpJ "Researchers found structural abnormalities in the brains of individuals with narcissistic personality disorder... People who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, which is characterized by extreme arrogance and self-absorption, have structural abnormalities in a region of the brain that has been linked to empathy, new study finds.
Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 34 people, including 17 individuals who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, and found that pathological narcissists have less grey matter in a part of the cerebral cortex called the left anterior insula. "
by Denise Chow
livescience.com
Psychopaths
Most people know very little about psychopaths or if they do they think of them in terms of violent killers or murderers.
The reality is that many psychopaths live and work amongst us and we don't realise it. What we may know of these people is that they can function quite well however they have a crazy ability to ride slipshod over others without even a backward glance. They are often known for their erratic, reprehensible, incomprehensible behaviour. They can be bullies both at home and in the workplace. They can cause trouble and cunningly turn it around to make their accusers look like the troublemakers. They can be excruciatingly cruel. This is because of their intrinsic lack of empathy. Although they may give the appearance of being social they are intrinsically solipsistic by nature.
I once had the misfortune to meet a woman, who caused a great deal of strife for those she had anything to do with- myself included. At first she seemed so competent and intelligent however as time went on she was more like a seductive temptress. Yet to the untrained observer she was seemingly amazing and attractive. She of course made sure that the world knew she was amazing and wonderful. She would even tell you herself how marvellous she was. Such was her unbridled narcissistic view of herself. She had an amazing ability to gather people around her as fly beguiled by a Venus flytrap. Yes she was beguiling. I instantly liked her however it was only after my second meeting with her she began to show her true colours. Such was her "charm". Yes they are charmers to the highest degree. A typical description as given by the DSM IV:
- Grandiose sense of self worth
- Glib /superficial charm
- Pathological lying
- Cunning and manipulative
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Emotionally shallow
- Callous/ lack of empathy
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Lack of realistic, long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Poor behavioural controls
- Early behavioural problems
- Juvenile delinquency
- Revocation of conditional release
- Criminal versatility
One of the significant observable features about the woman I met- and common amongst these sort of people, was that she left a trail of broken relationships in her wake both in her personal life and business relationships. She would speak the most outrageous things in public where most would have the social decorum to guard their lips. She had no qualms about making inappropriate sexual comments in a public or business setting and had no sense of embarrassment or impropriety. Yet she was convincingly plausible. She could promote herself and present to the world a very palatable acceptable façade. She had no real business qualifications, yet she managed to get herself into business settings and promote herself. She beguiled her way into the inner sanctum of businesses she worked with. To those that knew her and had negative dealings with her she became their bête noire, their anathema.
She was sexually inappropriate in public, giving rise to my suspicions she may have had an influence of Histrionic personality disorder.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Wikipedia describes it in the following:
HPD lies in the dramatic cluster of personality disorders.[3] People with HPD have a high need for attention, make loud and inappropriate appearances, exaggerate their behaviors and emotions, and crave stimulation.[3] They may exhibit sexually provocative behavior, express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and can be easily influenced by others. Associated features include egocentrism, self-indulgence, continuous longing for appreciation, and persistent manipulative behavior to achieve their own needs.
Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org
Yes she was loud, and inappropriate as I have already mentioned.One of her other infamous qualities was her cunning ability to bifurcate colleagues, friends, partners and many others. We later met people whom she dared call friends that she had fallen out with after using of them for her own ends. She used them until they were not useful anymore then spat them out when they no longer served her selfish wants and needs. I was just one of her many casualties. Initially they seemed like committed friends, then we found out she had been less than loyal to these people who had been more than generous to her yet she had treated them less that respectfully.
It was only retrospectively after having some extremely negative interactions with her that I began to suspect she was a psychopath even though I was unqualified to make this diagnosis. She certainly appeared to tick all the boxes of one. She once told us that she "scripted everything" she said as she told us that she didn't actually know what was appropriate so she learned how to interact in the world by watching others and learning what to say. She was charming, had what I believe to be a false sense of grandiosity and clearly lacked empathy.
I began researching and came across personality disorders. She appeared to fit somewhere between a narcissist and a psychopath. Unfortunately they are difficult to diagnose because they rarely seek out help. They don't see themselves as having a problem. They only see others as having the problem even though their history is littered with casualties from their actions and behaviour.
Having been on the receiving end of her behaviour, gave me some- (albeit limited) insight into why she was like she was. There is still speculation whether a psychopath is born or made. It appears that one fact remains and that is they are hardwired.
Her life was as she told it a history of growing up in domestically violent household. Her father apparently was abusive and violent to her mother and she lived on a knife edge often calling police as a young girl to intervene in her parents domestic situation. Perhaps the agony of growing up in a violent insecure environment had affected her to the point that she was precluded from learning what was normal and what wasn't. Therefore she acted out of a limited capacity to have what most would see as a normal social schema which sadly caused her trouble throughout her life.
Wikipedia describes it in the following:
HPD lies in the dramatic cluster of personality disorders.[3] People with HPD have a high need for attention, make loud and inappropriate appearances, exaggerate their behaviors and emotions, and crave stimulation.[3] They may exhibit sexually provocative behavior, express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and can be easily influenced by others. Associated features include egocentrism, self-indulgence, continuous longing for appreciation, and persistent manipulative behavior to achieve their own needs.
Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org
Yes she was loud, and inappropriate as I have already mentioned.One of her other infamous qualities was her cunning ability to bifurcate colleagues, friends, partners and many others. We later met people whom she dared call friends that she had fallen out with after using of them for her own ends. She used them until they were not useful anymore then spat them out when they no longer served her selfish wants and needs. I was just one of her many casualties. Initially they seemed like committed friends, then we found out she had been less than loyal to these people who had been more than generous to her yet she had treated them less that respectfully.
It was only retrospectively after having some extremely negative interactions with her that I began to suspect she was a psychopath even though I was unqualified to make this diagnosis. She certainly appeared to tick all the boxes of one. She once told us that she "scripted everything" she said as she told us that she didn't actually know what was appropriate so she learned how to interact in the world by watching others and learning what to say. She was charming, had what I believe to be a false sense of grandiosity and clearly lacked empathy.
I began researching and came across personality disorders. She appeared to fit somewhere between a narcissist and a psychopath. Unfortunately they are difficult to diagnose because they rarely seek out help. They don't see themselves as having a problem. They only see others as having the problem even though their history is littered with casualties from their actions and behaviour.
Having been on the receiving end of her behaviour, gave me some- (albeit limited) insight into why she was like she was. There is still speculation whether a psychopath is born or made. It appears that one fact remains and that is they are hardwired.
Her life was as she told it a history of growing up in domestically violent household. Her father apparently was abusive and violent to her mother and she lived on a knife edge often calling police as a young girl to intervene in her parents domestic situation. Perhaps the agony of growing up in a violent insecure environment had affected her to the point that she was precluded from learning what was normal and what wasn't. Therefore she acted out of a limited capacity to have what most would see as a normal social schema which sadly caused her trouble throughout her life.
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