KGB Report by Kevin G. Barkes - Histrionic personality disorder

Fun with personality disorders
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Published Wednesday, June 20, 2018 @ 12:43 PM EDT

Jun 20 2018

Section 7 of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics states that it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures whom they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements.

Fortunately, neither me nor, presumably, you, is a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Therefore, our opinions are not professional; they;re just opinions. And, as of yet, having an opinion is still something you're entitled to do in the good ol' US of A.

Use of this handy little checklist is not limited to public figures. Just about every family or workplace has someone who meets the criteria outlined below, cribbed from the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

In the past 15 months or so, have you encountered anyone who acts as if they have oppositional defiant disorder? Someone so afflicted may:

Often loses temper
Often touchy or easily annoyed
Often angry and resentful
Often argues with authority figures
Often actively defies or refuses to comply with requests from authority figures or with rules
Often deliberately annoys others
Has been spiteful or vindictive at least twice within the past six months.

How about histrionic personality disorder? These folks:

Must be the center of attention
Craves novelty and excitement
Easily influenced by others, especially those who treat them approvingly
Socially skillful, but manipulative and exploitative
Overly dramatic and emotional, exaggerates problems
Blames personal failures or disappointments on others
Seeks reassurance or approval constantly
Excessively sensitive to criticism or disapproval
Exhibitionist behavior
Cannot tolerate frustration or delayed gratification
Makes rash decisions
Proud of own personality and unwillingness to change, viewing any change as a threat
Has emotional states that rapidly change and may appear superficial or exaggerated to others
Believes relationships are more intimate than they actually are

Perhaps a megalomaniac with narcissistic personality disorder?:

Exploits others to achieve personal gain
Fixates on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
Vainglorious, expects superior treatment and obedience from others
Intensely envious, believes others are equally envious of them
Needs the continual admiration of others
Arrogant and pompous
Believes they are unique, superior, and belong with high-status people and institutions
Refuses to empathize with the emotions, hopes, and needs of other people

Although not recognized in the DSM, you can do a mashup of the above to produce different flavors of narcissist:

Subtype	Description	Personality traits
Unprincipled narcissist	Including antisocial features.	Deficient conscience; unscrupulous, amoral, disloyal, fraudulent, deceptive, arrogant, exploitive; a con artist and charlatan; dominating, contemptuous, vindictive.
Amorous narcissist	Including histrionic features.	Sexually seductive, enticing, beguiling, tantalizing; glib and clever; disinclined to real intimacy; indulges hedonistic desires; bewitches and inveigles others; pathological lying and swindling. Tends to have many affairs, often with exotic partners.
Compensatory narcissist	Including negativistic and avoidant features	Seeks to counteract or cancel out deep feelings of inferiority and lack of self-esteem; offsets deficits by creating illusions of being superior, exceptional, admirable, noteworthy; self-worth results from self-enhancement.
Elitist narcissist	Variant of pure pattern	Feels privileged and empowered by virtue of special childhood status and pseudo-achievements; entitled façade bears little relation to reality; seeks favored and good life; is upwardly mobile; cultivates special status and advantages by association.
Normal narcissist	Absent of the traits of the other four	Least severe and most interpersonally concerned and empathetic, still entitled and deficient in reciprocity; bold in environments, self-confident, competitive, seeks high targets, feels unique; talent in leadership positions; expecting of recognition from others.
Fanatic narcissist	Including paranoid features	Grandiose delusions are irrational and flimsy; pretentious, expensive supercilious contempt and arrogance toward others; lost pride reestablished with extravagant claims and fantasies. Reclassified under paranoid personality disorder.
Hedonistic narcissist	Mix of initial four subtypes	Hedonistic and self-deceptive, avoidant of responsibility and blame, shifted onto others; idiosyncratic, often self-biographical, proud of minor quirks and achievements, conflict-averse and sensitive to rejection; procrastinative, self-undoing, avolitive, ruminantly introspective; the most prone to fantastic inner worlds which replace social life
Malignant narcissist	Including antisocial, sadistic and paranoid features.	Fearless, guiltless, remorseless, calculating, ruthless, inhumane, callous, brutal, rancorous, aggressive, biting, merciless, vicious, cruel, spiteful; hateful and jealous; anticipates betrayal and seeks punishment; desires revenge; has been isolated, and is potentially suicidal or homicidal.
Pure Narcissist	Mainly just NPD characteristics.	Someone who has narcissistic features described in the DSM and ICD and lacks features from other personality disorders.
Attention Narcissist	Including histrionic (HPD) features.	They display the traditional NPD characteristics described in the ICD & DSM along with histrionic features due to the fact that they think they are superior and therefore they should have everyone's attention, and when they do not have everyone's attention they go out of their way to capture the attention of as many people as possible.
Beyond The Rules Narcissist	Including antisocial (ASPD) features.	This type of narcissist thinks that because they are so superior to everyone they do not have to follow the rules like most people and therefore show behavior included in the ICD for dissocial personality disorder and behavior, included in the DSM for antisocial personality disorder.