Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Dark Side of Personality | Psychology Today

The Dark Side of Personality | Psychology Today


The Dark Side of Personality

Is there a psychopath in your neighborhood, boardroom, or (egad) bedroom? Maybe it's more common than we want to think.

Psychopathy

Psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot. The psychopath can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack conscience and empathy, making them manipulative, volatile and often (but by no means always) criminal. They are an object of popular fascination and clinical anguish: psychopathy is impervious to treatment.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are deeply ingrained ways of thinking and behaving that are inflexible and generally lead to impaired relationships with others. Mental health professionals formally recognize ten disorders that fall into three "clusters," although there is now known to be much overlap between the disorders, each of which exists on a spectrum.

Personality

Questions of personality have vexed mankind from the dawn of personhood: can people change? How do others perceive me? What is the difference between normal and pathological behavior? One's personality is so pervasive and all-important that it presents a clinical paradox of sorts: it is hard to assess our own personality, impossible to overlook that of others.

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