Personality Disorders: More Than The Eye Can See

Sometimes the behavior of others from our perspective can seem very disturbing and completely incomprehensible. You’ve probably thought about the personalities of others several times without coming up with actual answers.

Personalities are not perfectly cut from stone. Rather, personalities are full of dents and bumps. However, sometimes these dents are so deep that they cause the person to break himself, becoming the most characteristic part of the structure of his personality.

Sometimes there can be certain quite disturbing character traits in a person, not as an exception, but as a common pattern of behavior. These are also known as personality disorders.

What are personality disorders?

A personality disorder is a pattern of behavior that becomes increasingly apparent as a person begins to mature. Because of his own behavior, his relationships with others often change as well.

What we can see with personality disorders is that certain character traits become completely central to a person’s behavior. For example, we all want to be the center of attention in certain situations, but some people seem to have no choice but to always make themselves the center of attention.

Some of the Most Rejected Personality Disorders

Remember that some maladaptive character traits can sometimes become a pattern that remains stable for years and in all kinds of different situations. We will therefore take a closer look at some of the personality disorders that cause the most unrest.

Narcissistic personality disorder

People who suffer from this disorder characterize themselves as having a general pattern of grandiosity and the need to be admired by others. They consider themselves very important, and they constantly entertain themselves with fantasies of limitless success, power, greatness, beauty and love.

Narcissists tend to behave arrogantly and show a lack of empathy. They use their relationships with others as a means to achieve their own goals. They see themselves as very special and unique. They are pretentious, they exploit others and show time and again how envious they are.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

People who suffer from this disorder are characterized by a distrust or suspicion of their environment, and they perceive the behavior of others as very malicious. They constantly think that everyone is plotting against them, or that they are receiving unjust insults and accusations from others. You can recognize these people because they are suspicious and suspicious of your intentions.

Loyalty is an obsession for them, and they expect that others will betray them at any given moment, and that the information others have about their lives will one day be used against them.

This makes them feel like building intimacy and trust. And if they do think that someone has betrayed them, they will feel resentment towards that person for a very long time, and will constantly raise these grievances again. It is not surprising that they display this behavior more acutely towards their own partner, since these types of people will constantly think that their partner is unfaithful.

Borderline personality disorder

This personality disorder shows a general pattern of imbalance in interpersonal relationships and one’s self-image. It is also accompanied by a marked impulsivity, which develops by the time one matures and presents itself in different contexts. Often these people tend to blame others for their own unrest.

This disorder is called “borderline” because these people are on the verge of extreme neuroticism, which in some situations can lead to psychotic attacks.

Together with depression, this disorder is one of the fastest-growing disorders in the world, so we will also go into some detail about this disorder. People who suffer from this disorder are characterized by a pattern of unstable relationships. Everything is either negative or positive, with no middle ground.

The most disturbing thing about borderline is that these people are unable to regulate their emotions. Therapy usually focuses on these people’s ability to validate themselves and adjust, accept, and regulate their emotions.

Several theories, such as Anthony Bateman’s theory and Peter Fonagy’s mentalization theory, argue that these people are incapable of subjectively understanding themselves and others. That is, they turn their fear into action right away, without putting it through a mental filter first.

Their unrest, which cannot be rationally understood, expresses itself in compulsive actions. Self-harm and suicidal tendencies are much more common in people who suffer from this disorder than in people who suffer from another disorder. Another popular therapy for this disorder is Marsha M. Linehan’s Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

Linehan suffers from this disorder herself, and she developed the idea that there is a biological predisposition to this disorder, but that external factors ultimately trigger the disorder. Several films have attempted to explore this disorder, such as Girl interrupted and the Spanish film La Herida (The Wound).

Dependent personality disorder

This disorder is categorized as an anxious or nervous personality disorder. The people who suffer from it usually exhibit a behavior pattern that shows an exaggerated need to be cared for by someone, which makes them subject themselves to others, become dependent on others, and fear abandonment.

Dependent people are afraid to make their own decisions, and they constantly need the validation and approval of others.

Dependent people often have a tendency to desperately look for a partner, even if they don’t really feel emotionally involved, just to avoid being abandoned or having to be alone. Sometimes, when abandoned, they will try to get attention by crossing certain boundaries and blaming others.

Theatrical Personality Disorder

The people who suffer from this disorder display a pattern of exaggerated emotions and attention seeking. They behave seductively, dramatically and enthusiastically in their quest for attention. This behavior is linked to self-centeredness and the inability to accept turmoil in their social relationships.

Theatrical people are characterized by their urge to be the center of attention at all costs, whether this is achieved by exuding grandeur or by playing the victim role.

They seem to have very good social skills, but their overdone drama and theatricality causes their relationships to slowly wear out. They are not good at tolerating frustration, and any kind of abandonment or sign of indifference is an unacceptable attack, causing them immense distress.