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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