28/06/2023
What is Personality and what is Personality Disorder ?
(mental health awareness series)
We often use the word, ‘ ‘Personality’ in our conversations and writings. What precisely do we mean by it?
Personality is the unique constellation of thinking,feeling and behaviour that each of us has. Sometimes personality is called 'temperament' in common language, but temperament is also used in a narrow sense to just mean if a person is short tempered or not. The Hindi word ‘‘swabhaav’ means pretty much the same.
Personality is what each of us is psychologically. Each of us has a different personality and all are ‘normal’, it is only rarely that it is maladaptive.
Since personality of each of us is different, this makes people interesting. If all of us were psychological clones life would have been flat and boring as hell. This uniqueness is almost comparable to uniqueness of physical characteristics and biometrics like finger prints.
This uniqueness of personality also to an extent determines how each of us would respond in a particular situation. Personality is properly developed only after adolescence and remains stable after that. It does not change under different situations, and this is what makes us predictable to those who know us closely.
Getting to know a person is getting to know the personality. Dating is all about knowing about the other person’s personality.
I can be an introvert, anxious, non-obsessive and over trusting person and you can be an extrovert, non-anxious, obsessive, and not so trusting person. Personality traits are stable and enduring. There are a very large number of personality traits and along each of those dimensions, a person can fall on a particular point.
The matrix that would result is what is mapped in a personality test.
Personality Disorder is the term used when certain personality traits are so exaggerated that these lead to maladjustment with others in family or with friends and colleagues causing distress to others and to the person. However, person's own behaviour appears to him as ‘normal’, correct, proportional and justified and he is genuinely perplexed by others’ reactions.
The behaviour which flows out of personality is ego-syntonic. He/ she is comfortable with it, justifies it and does not see any reason that it should change.
It is also permanent, although there is some mellowing seen in old age. Since the maladaptive behaviour of a person with personality disorder puts off people it leads to a certain degree of blaming others, loneliness, suspiciousness, and a feeling that the whole world is against him. Since there is no clear discernible time of onset and no fixed time of its going away, some argue it should not even be considered an illness.
People with personality disorders do not seek psychiatric help for personality disorder itself. They do so when because of their disorder, they come in clash with their surroundings leading to stress and depression, other mental illnesses or brushes with the law.
There are several types of personality disorders which broadly fall into three clusters: -
Cluster A ('Odd’) Paranoid, Schizoid and Schizotypal personality disorders.
Cluster B ('Dramatic, emotional, erratic'). Antisocial, Histrionic, Borderline and Narcissistic personality disorders.
Cluster C ('Anxious and fearful') Avoidant, Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders.
More later.
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