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Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Interpersonal Behavior, Character Diagnosis


By: Henry Kellerman and Anthony Burry

The main personality disorders and representative protocol findings are described in terms of an organizational schema of basic character types. These character types represent the consistent and integrative aspects of personality functioning based on stable and enduring traits, dispositions, and emotional reactions.

Because further diagnostic refinement would invariably encompass characterological dispositions as the unifying aspect of personality, it is important to clarify the individual’s particular characteristic personality inclination prior to further delineating diagnosis.

Organization of basic character types.

Emotion-Controlled types manage tension and character formation through the control of emotion.
• Obsessive-compulsive personality: Emphasis on intellectualized defenses to secure feelings of control and avoid threat from the unexpected.
• Paranoid personality: Emphasis on projection of criticality in order to sharply distinguish the other from the self and to avoid experiencing personal inadequacy.
• Schizoid personality: Emphasis on self-containment, with aloofness and hostile fantasy.


Emotional-Dyscontrolled types manage tension in character formation through the dyscontrol of emotion.

• Histrionic personality: Emphasis on self-dramatization and denial of negative information.
• Narcissistic personality: Emphasis on demand for admiration with exhibitionism and expectation of special entitlement.
• Antisocial or psychopathic personality: Emphasis on acting-out to avoid a sense of emotional paralysis, ensuring diminished reflectiveness and reduced ability to learn from consequences.

Emotion-Attached (Dependent) types manage tension through excessive reliance on parental-type authority.

• Passive-aggressive personality: Emphasis on retaining dependency, attachment, and sense of individuality by covert power struggles with authority.
• Dependent personality: Emphasis on magical wishes for gratification in the absence of instrumental activity toward goals.
• Inadequate personality: Emphasis on broad-scale under-responsiveness to demands of the environment, requiring consistent input and support from authority.

Emotion-Detached (Avoidant) types manage tension in character formation through withdrawal and protection from authority structures.

• Borderline personality: Emphasis on limited relationships, a reflex toward anger, and unstable elements of identity.
• Schizotypal personality: Emphasis on protection of self-esteem resulting in paucity of relationships.
• Avoidant personality: Emphasis on need for excessive assurance of acceptance because of intense fear of rejection, with consequent shying away from social interactions.

References

Henry Kellerman and Anthony Burry, Handbook of Psychodiagnostic Testing, Fourth Edition, 2007, Springer ScienceBusiness Media, LLC.

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