Psychology Blog

Elsa Ronningstam, PhD* Elsa Ronningstam, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Arielle R. Baskin-Sommers, MS Arielle R. Baskin-Sommers, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Author information ► Copyright and License information ► This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Linking psychoanalytic studies with neuroscience has proven increasingly productive for identifying and understanding personality functioning. This article focuses on pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), with…

Read More Read More

February 01, 1996 | Antisocial Personality Disorder, Addiction, DSM IV, Personality Disorders By Robert D. Hare, PhD A Secret Service agent recently asked if I was familiar with a 1992 FBI report that almost half of the killers of law enforcement officers met the criteria for antisocial personality. I replied that I had not seen the report but that the finding did not seem surprising or noteworthy to me. My comment was based on the assumption that the report had…

Read More Read More

Lori N. Scott, Yookyung Kim, Kimberly A. Nolf, Michael N. Hallquist, Aidan G.C. Wright, Stephanie D. Stepp, Jennifer Q. Morse, and Paul A. Pilkonis Author information ► Copyright and License information ► The publisher’s final edited version of this article is available at J Pers Disord See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. Abstract Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are seen by many clinical researchers as central aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Alternatively, these constructs may…

Read More Read More

Creativity and psychopathology rellationship is often widely discussed in media. No surprise because some of the most famous artists really suffered from certain mental ilnesses. In 2012 Swedish researchers conducted a study with a vast sample of 1,173,763 patients. One of their aims was to study whether creativity is associated with all psychiatric disorders or restricted to those with psychotic features. The paper was originally published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. Vincent van Gog – Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear,…

Read More Read More

  By Steve Bressert, Ph.D. ~ 4 min read Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is characterized by a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. When rules and established procedures do not dictate the correct answer, decision making may become a time-consuming, often painful process. Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder may have such difficulty deciding which tasks take priority or what is the best way of doing some particular task that they may never…

Read More Read More

  Definition: Sense of Entitlement – An unrealistic, unmerited or inappropriate expectation of favorable living conditions and favorable treatment at the hands of others. Always asking for more When someone with a Personality Disorder experiences the extreme ups and downs of mood swings, they can sometimes believe their own emotional needs are of the utmost importance. They may appear sometimes to care only about their own desires and needs – at the expense of other people around them – or they…

Read More Read More

Q: What is narcissism? Narcissism means having an inflated or grandiose sense of self. A narcissist thinks she is special, unique, and entitled to better treatment than others. Narcissists aren’t particularly interested in warmth and caring in their relationships. They might enjoy being around people — and certainly can be charming, flattering, exciting and likable — but they are in relationships for their own narcissistic needs. Narcissists also spend a good deal of their time and energy doing things to…

Read More Read More

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following: A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following: Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify…

Read More Read More

  By Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Associate Editor ~ 4 min read Antisocial personality disorder is thought of as an uncommon and untreatable disorder, if it’s thought of at all. Not many researchers study the disorder because little funding is available. Practitioners aren’t particularly interested in working with these individuals either, because they’re difficult and some can be dangerous. Many also believe that studying antisocials is futile, because they’ll never improve. “A lot of doctors and other mental health professionals just…

Read More Read More