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Sam Vaknin Profile and Articles
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1). Cluster B Personality Disorders
The DSM-IV-TR (2000) defines a personality disorder as:
"An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations the individuals culture (and is manifested in two or more of his or her areas of mental life:) cognition, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, or impulse control."
Such a pattern is rigid, long-term (stable), and recurrent.
2). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) - Pros and Cons
The 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 the DSM has been using since 1952 is harshly criticized as woefully inadequate by many scholars and practitioners.
3). MMPI-II Test
The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), composed by Hathaway (a psychologist) and McKinley (a physician) is the outcome of decades of research into personality disorders. The revised version, the MMPI-II (also known as MMPI-2), was published in 1989 but was received cautiously. MMPI-II changed the scoring method and some of the normative data.
4). The Construct of Normal Personality
Personality disorders are dysfunctions of our whole identity, tears in the fabric of who we are. They are all-pervasive because our personality is ubiquitous and permeates each and every one of our mental cells. I just published the first article in this topic titled "What is Personality?". Read it to understand the subtle differences between "personality", "character", and "temperament".
5). Narcissism and Personality Disorders
Are all personality disorders the outcomes of frustrated narcissism?
During our formative years (6 months to 6 years old), we are all "narcissists". Primary Narcissism is a useful and critically important defense mechanism. As the infant separates from his mother and becomes an individual, it is likely to experience great apprehension, fear, and pain.
6). Diagnosing Personality Disorders
Personality traits are enduring, usually rigid patterns of behavior, thinking (cognition), and emoting expressed in a variety of circumstances and situations and throughout one's life (typically from early adolescence onward). Some personality traits are harmful to both oneself and to others. These are the dysfunctional traits. Often they cause discomfort and the person bearing these traits is unhappy and self-critical.
7). Avoidant Personality Disorder
People 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 hypersensitive. Even the slightest, most constructive and well-meant or helpful criticism and disagreement are perceived as complete rejection, ridicule, and shaming.
8). What is Personality?
In their opus magnum "Personality Disorders in Modern Life", Theodore Millon and Roger Davis define personality as:
"(A) complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that are expressed automatically in almost every area of psychological functioning." (p. 2)
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)) IV-TR (2000), published by.
9). Common Features of Personality Disorders
Psychology is more an art form than a science. There is no "Theory of Everything" from which one can derive all mental health phenomena and make falsifiable predictions. Still, as far as personality disorders are concerned, it is easy to discern common features. Most personality disorders share a set of symptoms (as reported by the patient) and signs (as observed by the mental health practitioner).
10). Misdiagnosing Narcissism - Asperger's Disorder
(The use of gender pronouns in this article reflects the clinical facts: most narcissists and most Asperger's patients are male.)Asperger's Di
11). Borderline Personality Disorder
The fact that the Borderline personality disorder is often found among women makes it a controversial mental health diagnosis. Some scholars say that it is a culture-bound pseudo-syndrome invented by men to serve a patriarchal and misogynistic society. Others point to the fact the lives of patients diagnosed with the disorder are chaotic and that the relationships they form are stormy, short-lived, and unstable.
12). Psychological Tests
Personality assessment is perhaps more an art form than a science. In an attempt to render it as objective and standardized as possible, generations of clinicians came up with psychological tests and structured interviews. These are administered under similar conditions and use identical stimuli to elicit information from respondents. Thus, any disparity in the responses of the subjects can and is attributed to the idiosyncrasies of their personalities.
13). Microsoft's Encarta Premium 2007
While Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006 marked Microsoft's commitment to the Web - Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 marks its commitments to its own technology. The new Encarta relies on Microsoft's powerful, flexible, scalable, and adaptable .Net Framework 2.0. There a price to pay, of course: the time it takes to install the product is much longer and the user is henceforth prompted to constantly download security updates from Microsoft.
14). MMCI-III Diagnostic Test
The third edition of this popular test, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III), has been published in 1996. With 175 items, it is much shorter and simpler to administer and to interpret than the MMPI-II. The MCMI-III diagnoses personality disorders and Axis I disorders but not other mental health problems. The inventory is based on Millon's suggested multiaxial model in which long-term characteristics and traits interact with clinical symptoms.
15). Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizoids enjoy nothing and seemingly never experience pleasure (they are anhedonic). Even their nearest and dearest often describe them as "automata", "robots", or "machines". But the schizoid is not depressed or dysphoric, merely indifferent. Schizoids are uninterested in social relationships and bored or puzzled by interpersonal interactions. They are incapable of intimacy and have a very limited range of emotions and affect.
16). Disorder-specific Tests
There are dozens of psychological tests that are disorder-specific: they aim to diagnose specific personality disorders or relationship problems. Example: the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) which is used to diagnose the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
The Borderline Personality Organization Scale (BPO), designed in 1985, sorts the subject's responses into 30 relevant scales.
17). Narcissism - Treatment Modalities and Therapies - Part I
Question:Is the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) more amenable to Cognitive-Behavioural therapies or to Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic o
18). The History of Personality Disorders
Well into the eighteenth century, the only types of mental illness - then collectively known as "delirium" or "mania" - were depression (melancholy), psychoses, and delusions. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the French psychiatrist Pinel coined the phrase "manie sans delire" (insanity without delusions). He described patients who lacked impulse control, often raged when frustrated, and were prone to outbursts of violence.
19). Structured Interviews
The Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II) was formulated in 1997 by First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, and Benjamin. It closely follows the language of the DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders criteria. Consequently, there are 12 groups of questions corresponding to the 12 personality disorders. The scoring is equally simple: either the trait is absent, subthreshold, true, or there is "inadequate information to code".
20). The Roots of Pedophilia
Pedophiles are attracted to prepubescent children and act on their sexual fantasies. It is a startling fact that the etiology of this paraphilia is un
21). The Kidnapping of Content
http://www.plagiarism.org and http://www.Turnitin.comLatin kidnapped the word "plagion" from ancient Greek and it ended up in English as "plag
22). Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Clinical Features
Clinical Features of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Opinions vary as to whether the narcissistic traits evident in in infancy, childhood, and early adolescence are pathological. Anecdotal evidence suggests that childhood abuse and trauma inflicted by parents, authority figures, or even peers provoke "secondary narcissism" and, when unresolved, may lead to the full-fledged Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) later in life.
23). Why Are Politicians Corrupt?
Most politicians bend the laws of the land and steal money or solicit bribes because they need the funds to support networks of patronage. Others do it in order to reward their nearest and dearest or to maintain a lavish lifestyle when their political lives are over.
But these mundane reasons fail to explain why some officeholders go on a rampage and binge on endless quantities of lucre.
24). Axes of Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are like tips of icebergs. They rest on a foundation of causes and effects, interactions and events, emotions and cognitions, functions and dysfunctions that together form the patient and make him or her what s/he is.
The DSM uses five axes to analyze, classify, and describe these data. The patient (or subject) presents himself to a mental health diagnostician, is evaluated, tests are administered, questionnaires fulfilled, and a diagnosis rendered.
25). The Exclusionary Conscience
The self-identity of most nation-states is exclusionary and oppositional: to generate solidarity, a sense of shared community, and consensus, an ill-defined "we" is unfavorably contrasted with a fuzzy "they". While hate speech has been largely outlawed the world over, these often counterfactual dichotomies between "us" and "them" still reign supreme.
26). Rorschach Inkblots Test
The Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach developed a set of inkblots to test subjects in his clinical research. In a 1942 monograph, Rorschach postulated that the blots evoke consistent and similar responses in groups patients. Only ten of the original inkblots are currently in diagnostic use. They were selected by John Exner. He also systematized the administration and scoring of the test.
27). The Fourth Law of Robotics
Sigmund Freud said that we have an uncanny reaction to the inanimate. This is probably because we know that – pretensions and layers of philosophi
28). Organ Trafficking in Eastern Europe
A kidney fetches $2700 in Turkey. According to last month's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, this is a high price. An Indian
29). The Myth of the Right to Life - Part II
The Right to Have One's Life Maintained
This leads to a more general quandary. To what extent can one use other people's bodies, their propert
30). SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the Aliens Conundrum - Part I
I. The Six Arguments against SETI
The various projects that comprise the 45-years old Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) raise two important issues:
(1) do Aliens exist and
(2) can we communicate with them.
If they do and we can, how come we never encountered an extraterrestrial, let alone spoken to or corresponded with one?
There.
31). Treatment Modalities and Therapies
Narcissism constitutes the entire personality. It is all-pervasive. Being a narcissist is akin to being an alcoholic but much more so. Alcoholism
32). The Argument for Torture
I. Practical ConsiderationsThe problem of the "ticking bomb" - rediscovered after September 11 by Alan Dershowitz, a renowned criminal defense
33). The Inverted Saint - Hitler
"My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few foll
34). Sex or Gender - Part II
The Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 edition describes the formation of ovaries and testes thus:"In the young embryo a pair of gonads develop that
35). The Depressive Narcissist
Many scholars consider pathological narcissism to be a form of depressive illness. This is the position of the authoritative magazine "Psychology Toda
36). The Manifold of Sense - Part II
To say that emotions are cognitions is to say nothing. We understand cognition even less than we understand emotions (with the exception of the mechan
37). The Disintermediation of Content
Are content brokers - publishers, distributors, and record companies - a thing of the past?In one word: disintermediationThe gradual r
38). The New Dark Ages
When I was growing up in a slum in Israel, I devoutly believed that knowledge and education will set me free and catapult me from my miserable circumstances into a glamorous world of happy learning. But now, as an adult, I find myself in an alien universe where functional literacy is non-existent even in developed countries, where "culture" means merely.
39). America the Narcissist
The majority of worldwide respondents to the last two global Pew enter surveys (in 2002 and 2006) regarded the United States as the greatest menace to world peace - far greater than the likes of Iraq or China. Thinkers and scholars as diverse as Christopher Lasch in "The Cultural Narcissist" and Theodore Millon in "Personality Disorders of Everyday Life" have singled out the United States as the quintessential narcissistic society.
40). Narcissist vs. Psychopath
We all heard the terms "psychopath" or "sociopath". These are the old names for a patient with the Antisocial Personality Disorder (AsPD). It is hard to distinguish narcissists from psychopaths. The latter may simply be a less inhibited and less grandiose form of the former. Indeed, the DSM V Committee is considering to abolish this distinction altogether.
41). The Psychopath and Antisocial
Roots 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 callousness, ruthlessness, extreme lack of empathy, deficient impulse control, deceitfulness, and sadism.
42). Histrionic Personality Disorder
Most patients with the Histrionic Personality Disorder are women. This immediately raises the question: Is this a real mental health disorder or a culture-bound syndrome which reflects the values of a patriarchal and misogynistic society? A man with similar traits is bound to be admired as a "macho" or, at worst, labeled a "womanizer".
Histrionics resemble narcissists - both seek attention compulsively and are markedly dysphoric and uncomfortable when not at the center of attention.
43). Bright Planet, Deep Web
www.allwatchers.com and www.allreaders.com are web sites in the sense that a file is downloaded to the user's browser when he or she surfs to these ad
44). Women in Transition From Post Feminism to Past Femininity -
"[In]... the brothels off Wenceslas Square, in central Prague, [where] sexual intercourse can be bought for USD 25 - about half the price charged
45). Abortion and the Right to Life - Part II
III. Abortion and the Social Contract
The issue of abortion is emotionally loaded and this often makes for poor, not thoroughly thought out a
46). The Impeachment of the President of the USA - Part III
AC : “Dysfunctional partnerships should be dissolved. The President should have divorced prior to indulging his sexual appetite. Sexual exclusivity is
47). Born Aliens - Part II
Expectedly, it is vague in the first four months of life. When presented with depth, the baby realizes that something is different – but not what. Bab
48). Intuition - Part II
The a-priori nature of intuitions of the first and the third kind led thinkers, such as Adolf Lasson, to associate it with Mysticism. He called it an
49). Narcissism - Treatment Modalities and Therapies - Part II
The fourth edition of the authoritative "Review of General Psychiatry" (London, Prentice-Hall International, 1995), says (p. 309):"(People wit
50). Narcissistic Personality Disorder - An Introduction
NARCISSISM (n. sing.)A pattern of traits and behaviours which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all other
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