Disturbed character

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Disturbed character is a personality type applied to people who are unencumbered by qualms of conscience and who passionately pursue their personal goals with indifference to - and often at expense of - the rights and needs of others, and cause all sorts of problems for others and society at large. Character-disordered personalities lack self-restraint when it comes to acting upon their primal urges. They have too little conscience or in extreme case no conscience at all. They typically resist making concessions to societal demands, may have some antisocial tendencies and have diminished capacities for experiencing genuine shame or guilt. Erroneous thinking patterns and attitudes underlie dysfunctional behaviors they display. These problematic behavior patterns may be habitual and automatic, but they also are conscious and deliberate. These distorted characters resist changing their attitudes and core beliefs despite having plenty of insight and awareness. What they need and can benefit from are:

Cognitive-behavioral therapeutic approaches are the most appropriate in this regard.

When dealing with disturbed characters, it is however also important to craft win-win scenarios so that they do not feel like they have to lose.[1][2]

Brief Summary of Problematic Patterns of Thinking of Disturbed Characters[1]

  • Self-focused/self-centered thinking
  • Possessive thinking
  • Extreme 'all-or-none' thinking
  • Egomaniacal thinking
  • Shameless thinking
  • Quick and easy thinking
  • Guiltless thinking

The aggressive personalities

Among the most character-disordered personalities are covert-aggressive personalities, the more extreme cases of which are[1]:

  • the tele-evangelists,
  • cult leaders,
  • political extremists,
  • Sunday night TV "success" peddlers and
  • militant social activists
They use the tactics of manipulation in their overall modus operandi and seek to rise to position of substantial power and influence. They gravitate toward and exploit the excellent opportunities for self-advancement and the wielding of considerable power under the guise of service available in such endeavors.

Examples

Science

In his historical lecture at Sorbonne University in 1864, Louis Pasteur denounced the doctrine of spontaneous generation, supported by evolutionists of his day[3][4], as error.[note 1] From that time on, Georges Clemenceau was among those who became Pasteur's fierce opponents, holding his scientific discoveries in disdain.[5] For twenty years Clemenceau, the future "Tiger"[6], waited for an opportunity to thwart Pasteur and his methods.[5] In 1886 Clemenceau joined Pasteur's adversaries who tried to discredit his method of antirabies vaccination whenever a death of patient occurred. They were ready to unleash hostile campaigns in the French press that was always looking for scandal and also in the scientific press, that had gained an important position in society since the first half of the nineteenth century. What was at stake here was the very future of the vaccines.[5] Pasteur however had no doubts about the effectiveness of his vaccine. He made sure that every last hostile article based on manipulative, aggressive and false accusations, whether in the general press or in specialized journals, received his response in which he defended his findings and conclusions he had drawn from them. Instead of using the same underhand means he faced, Pasteur showed science in action and personified the march of progress. At the same time, Pasteur's aggressive adversaries were consumed by envy and "cast into the shadowy realm of the wicked", along with other archaic opponents of his method.[5]

Notes

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 George Simon (1996, 2010). "8 The Manipulative Child", In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and dealing with Manipulative People. Little Rock, USA: Parkurst Brothers, 34-35, 55, 66. ISBN 978-1-935166-30-6. 
  2. ↑ George K. Simon. Dealing with manipulative people: Disturbed character. Retrieved on December 8, 2013.
  3. ↑ Comte de Buffon. Retrieved on December 17, 2013. “The Comte de Buffon was a French evolutionist and one of the best-known scientists of the 18th century. He served as director of the Royal Zoological gardens in Paris for more than 50 years. To a large extent Darwin based his theory on the works of de Buffon. One can see most of the teachings that Darwin employed in de Buffon’s wide-ranging 44-volume study Histoire Naturelle. In his Histoire Naturelle, Buffon reveals himself as an exponent of the doctrine of the Great Chain of Being, with man being placed at the top of the Chain. ... Moreover, new creatures were constantly appearing at the bottom of the Chain, arising from inorganic matter through spontaneous generation...From that point of view, the concept we refer to as the theory of evolution was actually born with the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain. There were many evolutionists before Darwin, and the most of their original ideas and so-called proofs were already to be found in the Great Chain of Being. With de Buffon and Lamarck the Great Chain of Being was presented to the scientific world in a new guise, whereupon it came to influence Darwin.”
  4. ↑ H.M. Hyndman. Clemenceau The Man And His Time. Retrieved on December 17, 2013. “Early Life: 1851. Liberty in every shape was, in fact, an essential part of this stalwart old Jacobin's political creed, while in the domain of physiology and general science he was a convinced evolutionist long before that conception of the inevitable development of the universe became part of the common thought of the time. ...Clemenceau, entering upon his father's profession, with the benefit of the paternal knowledge and full of the inculcated readiness to probe all the facts of life to the bottom, took up his medical studies as a serious business, after having gone through the ordinary curriculum of a school at Nantes.”
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Patrice Debré (1998). Louis Pasteur. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 454-456. ISBN 978-0801-865299. “...two other witnesses, both hostile to Pasteur method. ...and a little doctor in a black frock coat by the name of Georges Clemenceau. The future Tiger was indeed a fierce opponent of Pasteur. ...” 
  6. ↑ (1930) The Tiger: Georges Clemenceau, 1841-1929. Jonathan Cape. 

See Also