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Articles from Sam Vaknin | Selfgrowth.com
- The Borderline Patient - A Case Study - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2007 from Sam VakninNotes of first therapy session with T. Dal, female, 26, diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Dal is an attractive young woman but seems to be unable to maintain a stable sense of self-worth and self-esteem. Her confidence in her ability to "hold on to men" is at a low ebb, ...
Views: 1578 - Is the Narcissist Legally Insane? - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2007 from Sam VakninNarcissists are not prone to "irresistible impulses" and dissociation (blanking out certain stressful events and actions). They more or less fully control their behavior and acts at all times. But exerting control over one's conduct requires the investment of resources, both mental and physical. ...
Views: 1145 - Personality Disorders as an Insanity Defense - by Submitted on Jun 19, 2007 from Sam Vaknin"It is an ill thing to knock against a deaf-mute, an imbecile, or a minor. He that wounds them is culpable, but if they wound him they are not culpable." (Mishna, Babylonian Talmud) Some personality disorders are culture-bound. Critics charge that these "mental illnesses" mostly serve as an ...
Views: 1038 - Sex and Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Jun 19, 2007 from Sam VakninOur sexual behavior expresses not only our psychosexual makeup but also the entirety of our personality. Sex is the one realm of conduct which involves the full gamut of emotions, cognitions, socialization, traits, heredity, and learned and acquired behaviors. By observing one's sexual ...
Views: 1246 - Body Language and Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2007 from Sam VakninPatients with personality disorders have a body language specific to their disorder. It comprises an unequivocal series of subtle presenting signs. The patient's body language usually reflects the underlying mental health problem. For instance: people with Avoidant Personality Disorder and ...
Views: 1560 - The Narcissist in Therapy - by Submitted on Jun 15, 2007 from Sam VakninThe narcissist regards therapy as a competitive sport. In therapy the narcissist usually immediately insists that he (or she) is equal to the psychotherapist in knowledge, in experience, or in social status. To substantiate this claim and "level the playing field", the narcissist in the ...
Views: 1512 - The Hateful Patient - Difficult Patients in Psychotherapy - by Submitted on Jun 14, 2007 from Sam VakninIn 1978, a medical doctor by the name of J.E. Groves published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine an article titled "Taking Care of the Hateful Patient". In it he admitted that patients with personality disorders often evoke in their physicians dislike or even outright hatred. ...
Views: 1843 - Psychological Signs and Symptoms - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2007 from Sam VakninThe first encounter between psychiatrist or therapist and patient (or client) is multi-phased. The mental health practitioner notes the patient's history and administers or prescribes a physical examination to rule out certain medical conditions. Armed with the results, the diagnostician now ...
Views: 3358 - Addiction and Personality - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2007 from Sam VakninA voluminous literature notwithstanding, there is little convincing empirical research about the correlation between personality traits and addictive behaviors. Substance abuse and dependence (alcoholism, drug addiction) is only one form of recurrent and self-defeating pattern of misconduct. ...
Views: 1126 - Conduct Disorder - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2007 from Sam VakninChildren and adolescents with conduct disorder are budding psychopaths. They repeatedly and deliberately (and joyfully) violate the rights of others and breach age-appropriate social norms and rules. Some of them gleefully hurt and torture people or, more frequently, animals. Others damage ...
Views: 1779 - Brain and Personality - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2007 from Sam VakninPhineas Gage was a 25 years old construction foreman who lived in Vermont in the 1860s. While working on a railroad bed, he packed powdered explosives into a hole in the ground, using tamping iron. The powder heated and blew in his face. The tamping iron rebounded and pierced the top of his ...
Views: 964 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) - Pros and Cons - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, text revision [American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000] - or the DSM-IV-TR for short - describes Axis II personality disorders as "deeply ingrained, maladaptive, lifelong behavior patterns". But the classificatory model ...
Views: 4852 - Changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV - by Submitted on Jun 04, 2007 from Sam VakninThe DSM-IV dropped two diagnoses that made an appearance in the DSM-III: the masochistic and the sadistic personality disorders. But these are not the only differences between the two editions as far as Axis II (personality disorders) goes. The DSM-IV considerably expanded and updated the ...
Views: 921 - Therapy and Treatment of Personality Disorders - by Submitted on May 31, 2007 from Sam VakninI. Introduction The dogmatic schools of psychotherapy (such as psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapies, and behaviorism) more or less failed in ameliorating, let alone curing or healing personality disorders. Disillusioned, most therapists now adhere to one or more of three modern methods: ...
Views: 1026 - Negativistic (Passive-Aggressive) Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 30, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Negativistic (Passive-Aggressive) Personality Disorder is not yet recognized by the DSM Committee. It makes its appearances in Appendix B of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, titled "Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study." Some people are perennial pessimists and have ...
Views: 2219 - International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 - by Submitted on May 28, 2007 from Sam VakninThe International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is published by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. It included mental health disorders for the first time in 1948, in its sixth edition. In 1959, following widespread criticism of its classificatory scheme, the WHO ...
Views: 1305 - Psychosexual Stages of Personal Development - by Submitted on May 28, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Viennese neurologist, Sigmund Freud, was among the first to offer a model of psychological development in early childhood (within the framework of psychoanalysis). He closely linked the sex drive (libido) to the formation of personality and described five psychosexual stages, four of which ...
Views: 1226 - Depressive Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 24, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Depressive Personality Disorder is not yet recognized by the DSM Committee. It makes its appearances in Appendix B of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, titled "Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study." It is not clear in what way is the Depressive Personality Disorder ...
Views: 1355 - Masochistic Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 24, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Masochistic personality disorder made its last appearance in the DSM III-TR and was removed from the DSM IV and from its text revision, the DSM IV-TR. Some scholars, notably Theodore Millon, regard its removal as a mistake and lobby for its reinstatement in future editions of the DSM. The ...
Views: 4437 - Sadistic Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 23, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Sadistic Personality Disorder made its last appearance in the DSM III-TR and was removed from the DSM IV and from its text revision, the DSM IV-TR. Some scholars, notably Theodore Millon, regard its removal as a mistake and lobby for its reinstatement in future editions of the DSM. The ...
Views: 9651(1 vote) - Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) - by Submitted on May 22, 2007 from Sam VakninObsessions and compulsions are about control of self (mental) and others (interpersonal). People with the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) are concerned (worried and anxious) about maintaining control and about being seen to be maintaining it. In other words, they are also ...
Views: 3739 - Gender Bias in Diagnosing Personality Disorders - by Submitted on May 20, 2007 from Sam VakninEver since Freud, more women than men sought therapy. Consequently, terms like "hysteria' are intimately connected to female physiology and alleged female psychology. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession) expressly professes gender bias: personality ...
Views: 1611(1 vote) - Genetics and Personality Disorders - by Submitted on May 20, 2007 from Sam VakninAre personality disorders the outcomes of inherited traits? Are they brought on by abusive and traumatizing upbringing? Or, maybe they are the sad results of the confluence of both? To identify the role of heredity, researchers have resorted to a few tactics: they studied the occurrence of ...
Views: 1141 - Factor Models of Personality - by Submitted on May 16, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Five Factor Model deals with the healthy, normal personality. Not so other factor models. In 1990, Clark and a group of researchers constructed an instrument with 21 dimensions, based on the criteria of personality disorders in the DSM-III, on various scholarly texts in the field, and even ...
Views: 970 - Five Factor Personality Model - by Submitted on May 16, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Five Factor Model was suggested by two researchers, Costa and McCrae, in 1989. The designers of previous factor models sifted through bulky dictionaries and came up with thousands of words to describe human nature in all its variability. Not so the inventors of the Five Factor Model. It is ...
Views: 1346 - Paranoid Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 15, 2007 from Sam VakninThe paranoid's world is hostile, arbitrary, malicious, and unpredictable. Consequently, he or she distrusts others and suspects them. No good deed goes unpunished. Every gesture of goodwill is surely fuelled by ulterior, self-interested and uncharitable motives. Paranoids are firmly convinced ...
Views: 1584 - Avoidant Personality Disorder - by Submitted on Apr 25, 2007 from Sam VakninPeople suffering from the Avoidant Personality Disorder feel inadequate, unworthy, inferior, and lacking in self-confidence. As a result, they are shy and socially inhibited. Aware of their real (and, often, imagined) shortcomings, they are constantly on the lookout, are hypervigilant and ...
Views: 2249 - The Psychopath and Antisocial - by Submitted on Apr 22, 2007 from Sam VakninRoots of the Disorder Are the psychopath, sociopath, and someone with the Antisocial Personality Disorder one and the same? The DSM says "yes". Scholars such as Robert Hare and Theodore Millon beg to differ. The psychopath has antisocial traits for sure but they are coupled with and enhanced by ...
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