Monday, July 12, 2010

Personality Disorders of the Real Housewives (& my mother)

I came across this blog and found it very tantalizing. The author has a psychology degree and has used that degree to "diagnose" the various housewives for our entertainment.

Click here to read her synposis:
Personality Disorders of the Real Housewives

Read on to see how my mother compares to a couple of the housewives.  I have highlighted the characteristics that describe Mommie Dearest



Her diagnosis of Teresa sounds like my mother:

Emotionally Unstable Personality, Impulsive Type at least three of the following must be present:



■Marked tendency to act unexpectedly and without consideration of the consequences



■Marked tendency to quarrelsome behavior and to conflicts with others (my mother must maintain and cause conflicts amongst her children to amintain her feeling of control)

■Liability to outbursts of anger or violence without ability to control the resulting behavioral explosions


■Difficulty in maintaining any course of action that offers no immediate reward

■Unstable and capricious mood

But then Danielle's "diagnosis" also is very Liz-Like:

She has a Tony Soprano type charm I do think Danielle fits the profile for antisocial personality disorder and is indeed a psychopath. Judge for yourself though. Diagnosis is made by observation of a majority of these behaviors:

Selfish, callous and remorseless use of others:


■Glibness/superficial charm (smooth-talking, engaging and slick)

■Grandiose sense of self-worth (greatly inflated idea of one’s abilities and self-esteem, arrogance and a sense of superiority)

■Pathological lying

■Conning/manipulative (uses deceit to cheat others for personal gain)

■Lack of remorse or guilt (no feelings or concern for losses, pain and suffering of others)

■Emotional poverty (limited range or depth of feelings)

■Callous/lack of empathy (a lack of feelings toward others; cold, contemptuous and inconsiderate)

■Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Chronically unstable, antisocial and socially deviant lifestyle:

■Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom (an excessive need for new, exciting stimulation and risk-taking)

■Parasitic lifestyle (exploitative financial dependence on others)

■Poor behavioral control (frequent verbal abuse and inappropriate expressions of anger)

■Promiscuity (numerous brief, superficial sexual affairs)

■Lack of realistic, long-term goals

■Impulsivity

■Irresponsibility (repeated failure to fulfill or honor commitments and obligations)

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