Defining Personality

Edward J. Gordon

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Oct 28, 2000, 6:49:04 PM10/28/00

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I have read the descriptions of many personality disorders, but I have
never read a description of a perfect human personality. If the
perfect human personality isn't defined, how are the personality
disorders defined?

--
Edward J. Gordon
Edw...@XYSTUM.com

Alain Figer

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Oct 29, 2000, 2:34:29 PM10/29/00

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Edward J. Gordon wrote:
>
> If the perfect human personality isn't defined, how are the personality
> disorders defined?

Nobody's perfect.

For instance nobody is perfectly good. Nevertheless, words such as
"goodness" and "wickedness" can be defined.

Think about height. Nobody is perfectly "tall", nobody perfectly
"small". Nevertheless, you can define abnormality in a given population
by a figure of height lower than a given number.

Alain Figer

Edward J. Gordon

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Oct 29, 2000, 4:47:41 PM10/29/00

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I think you make my point for me. You claim a comparison between the
perfect human personality and abstract concepts such as goodness and
wickedness, but I think those concepts are equally hard to define.
I'm not saying one can't define all of these things; I'm saying that
there's a problem in writing a book such as the DSM IV without putting
into it an introduction that describes the perfect, or at least
correct, state of human psychology.

Terms like height and small are relative. They only have a meaning
when compared to something. A man is tall if he is taller than
another man. A woman is small if she's smaller than someone else. If
mental health is also relative, to what shall we compare it?

Let's say that someone has all the characteristics of a sadist. He
would be healthy in a combat zone and problematic in a cul-de-sac.
Nevertheless, how shall we judge his personality to be disordered?
What I'm saying is that it's fine to describe personalities by their
characteristics. But to label them as healthy or unhealthy is
presumptuous-without, that is, a set-in-stone definition of the
perfect human personality.

What do you think?

J Cheung

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Oct 29, 2000, 6:16:18 PM10/29/00

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My 2 cent response is that, instead of perfect personality, shouldn't you be
defining orderly personality?

J Cheung

Edward J. Gordon <edw...@xystum.com>

Tezza

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Oct 30, 2000, 2:55:13 AM10/30/00

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On Sat, 28 Oct 2000 22:49:04 GMT, edw...@xystum.com (Edward J. Gordon)
wrote:

>, how are the personality disorders defined?

Traits that all people exhibit, but to an extent that a person's life
and relationships are seriously impaired.

My limited understanding of personality disorder.

--Tez

Pat

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Oct 30, 2000, 10:40:56 AM10/30/00

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On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, J Cheung wrote:

> My 2 cent response is that, instead of perfect personality, shouldn't you be
> defining orderly personality?
>
> J Cheung
>

NO! >
>

Patricia (Pat) Mathews
mat...@unm.edu
INTP and as disorganized as you can get and still function.

JJS

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Nov 2, 2000, 7:53:41 PM11/2/00

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I'd say that you cannot define what is the true personality of someone. Also
DSM or any tool are not designed to, nor should they be used to tell
something about ones true personality. You can only describe the phenomena
that appear to you and can be measured. It's just a (carefully developed)
set of rules, so professionals can communicate with eachother about their
patients/clients.

Alain Figer heeft geschreven in bericht <39FC7B...@club-internet.fr>...