Do You Have a Paranoid Personality?

Post Reply New Topic

See also: Do You Have a Schizoid Personality?
And Do You Have an Obsessive-Compulsive Personality?
And Do You Have an Antisocial Personality?
And Do You Have an Avoidant Personality?
And Do You Have a Narcissistic Personality?
And Do You Have a Histrionic Personality?
And Do You Have a Schizotypal Personality?

Asperger's syndrome and paranoid personality disorder have some features in common:

For each criterion of paranoid personality disorder, decide how well it applies to you personally. If it doesn't apply at all, score it as 0; if it is somewhat applicable, score it as 1; and, if it describes you quite well, score it as a 2. The minimum possible score is 0; the maximum possible score is 14. For an ICD-10 diagnosis of F60.0 paranoid personality disorder, four criteria must be met. I measured myself as having a score of 0.

Mild-4 points, 1 each for b and c, 2 for a

I got a 10. No real shock

5.

6-not as high as what I was expecting

a - 2; b - 1; c - 0; d - 1; e - 0; f - 1; g - 0; = 5

Not too paranoid then.

4 points.

They really are out to get you for anyone who was wondering.

1. I don't worry to much.

I'm somewhere in the 6-8 range.


That can't be right. There's no way I can be moderately paranoid. This must be some kind of set-up. The government must have had neanthumain post this to lure me into displaying evidence so they can commit me some day. You're all in on it aren't you?! Get away from me!!

Dude! It sounds like someone (named you!) has paranoid schizophrenia! You do need to be comitted! by the way, I'm saying this as a friend; it's only a coincidence that I'm on the FBI payroll and have been tapping your telephone calls, bugging your house with microscopic surveillance devices, monitoring your e-mail exchanges, and (shock!) reading your posts on WrongPlanet.net.

These are pretty bad criteria for disease diagnosis, or else they are an extremely incomplete definition. All of these criteria are entirely subjective. They essentially amount to 'deviates from social norms', just repeated seven times. 'excessive' this and 'out of keeping' that, bah.

The criteria would only be meaningful if there were really solid, well-defined norms for all of these aspects of personality, and really solid, well defined reasons why a person shouldn't depart from those norms, and why people depart from them anyway. Then you could use the definition to say: "You are in situation X, and the 'norms' say you ought to react in ways A, B, and C. You reacted in way D, which is bad because of reasons M, N, O, and P, and indicates R, S, and T about how your mind works."

Sadly, the definition doesn't give even one example like this. That makes it hard to understand what it is talking about. If I was making the definition, I would have a great big list of these examples attached to it. Multiple examples per bullet point of the definition.

I hope this is only a summary version, not a real definition used by practicioners as a guide to any action whatsoever with regard to a disease process.

blah blah blah, complain moan etc.

I'm not paranoid... ok sorry I'll post my score later but I can't take the test now because I swear the guy sitting 5 seats down from me is only pretending to be asleep so he can read what I'm typing... OMG what if he just read that?!?!?!

I'm not paranoid in general, but in school, I sometimes feel paranoid that there is going to be a fire drill even though I strongly doubt it.

Well, I didn't repeat the ICD-10 criteria for any specific personality disorder, which I had listed along with the obsessive-compuslive personality disorder criteria. Basically, a personality disorder is a maladaptive set of personality traits. Usually, it's because normal attitudes, beliefs, reactions, and desires are taken to an extreme. It's normal and adaptive to be suspicious of some things. If a man comes to your house late at night and wanders around your lawn, looking at doors and windows, you aren't paranoid to have more than a little suspicion. People with personality disorders, on the other hand, react to diverse situations with only a few beliefs or attitudes. Their personality repertoire is limited.

I did not observe any paranoid personality traits in myself, and I am very far removed from the norm. I did recognize other personality traits in myself, which just means my personality tends to the more accepting and cooperative end than the cynical and hostile end. The thing is it is pretty tough for a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist to follow someone around at all hours of the day for weeks at a stretch so that they can observe a person's behavior in action. Instead, they must form clinical impressions by interviewing a patient and having the patient complete personality inventories. A person with a paranoid personality disorder may endorse statements that reflect an underlying suspicion of others in general on a personality survey. Listening to the patient discuss their reactions to life events will confirm this.

It's not like paranoid personality disorder can be diagnosed with a blood test or MRI. Personality essentially is the subjective. Personality is not only observable reactions to life events. It's also attitudes and beliefs. A passive-aggressive person and an easygoing person might behave similarly in a certain situation, but their thinking might be very different! The passive-aggressive person, of course, will have attitudes of hostility whereas the more easygoing person will have a cheerful attitude. Neither of these may be externally observable, though.

Apart from Borderline Personality Disorder (DSM-IV TR, 2000), there doesn't seem to be much acknowledgement of a Misanthropic Personality Enhancement Subroutine (sorry, I meant Disorder of course),. I wonder why this is so?

Is Misanthropy popularly perceived to be a core component of other Personality Disorders, or is it simply that it can be subsumed under a pre-existing diagnostic criterion, perhaps comprising an 'amalgam' or pre-existing disorders, or a prominent display of traits from one Disorder, with collateral co-morbidity from others, depending on presentation of symptoms in a clinical setting?