Interpersonal Tornadoes Research Paper

Interpersonal Tornadoes

Personality is commonly thought of to be a set of traits, distinctive behaviors, and patterns that make up a person 's character. What happens when a person’s personality does not fit the usual model or criteria to make them “normal”? They may have a personality disorder. A 2007 study found that roughly 9.1% of Americans suffer from some kind of personality disorder. Because personality disorders are deeply ingrained in early adolescence, they can cause long term difficulties for close relationships which poses a potential problem for performing traditional functions in society.

To begin with, there are three different “clusters” of personality disorders: “A”, “B”, and “C”. Cluster “A” includes odd or eccentric behavior,

The four cluster “B” personality disorders include antisocial, narcissistic, borderline, and histrionic disorders. These are also the most common of all personality disorders. Antisocial personality disorder is expressed by a continued pattern of neglect for other people’s rights, and also for violating those rights. It typically begins during childhood or as a teenager and continues into adulthood. Jeffrey Dahmer had antisocial personality disorder, he was arrested in February 1992 for multiple charges of rape and murder. He was very unstable and showed his neglect for other people’s rights through the years 1978-1991. Next in cluster “B” is narcissistic personality disorder, this is characterized by a lack of empathy for others, an excessive need for admiration from others, and an unrealistic sense of superiority. Persons with this disorder easily put themselves before others and they often believe that they are worth more than those which they meet. A famous figure that was said to have this disorder was Adolf Hitler. Hitler became obsessed later in life with the perfect Aryan race. He became dictator of Germany and started the homicide of the entire Jewish race, he believed his race was superior to theirs. Individuals with borderline personality disorder struggle with their self image and are extremely sensitive to environmental circumstances. Borderline

Last, Cluster “C” personality disorders are characterized by anxious, dreaded thinking or behaviors and include avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. This cluster and these three disorders share a very high level of anxiety. People with avoidant personality disorder fear rejection and criticization. An example of this is the pop star Michael Jackson. Therefore, he often wore costumes or masks in public and didn 't seem to enjoy being a celebrity much. People who knew him said he was very shy. Next in the final cluster is dependent personality disorder. This disorder can be very difficult for the people surrounding the holder of the disorder. Dependent personality disorder causes a person to solely rely on a single person or people to help them with almost every aspect of their life. Buster Bluth in the famous television show Arrested Development is a perfect example of this disorder. He shows the audience he is completely dependent on his mother; he can 't even make simple daily decisions such as which pair of shoes to wear that particular day. The very last disorder in Cluster “C” is obsessive compulsive disorder. About 3.3 million people in the United States suffer from this disorder. Around the world people are impacted daily by obsessive compulsive disorder. This disorder prevents them from doing regular daily tasks such as possibly even shaking someone 's hand. This disorder causes people to fear