Posted by Cory on March 30, 2001 at 17:13:34:
MY LAID-BACK, FUN-LOVING SIDE:
Ok first the Mikko thing, since it won't take long: Ok remember the post around March 12 on this board where you asked me how about beer and the "40 proof"? Well, when you asked "how much" I thought you were referring to the WHISKY. And that is 80 proof (40% alcohol). I said 40 proof, but as you can see, I mixed up the two. As for beer, I've drank Coors (since its provided free at band practice) and that's 10 proof beer. I also tried some Newcastle brown ale the other night, and that seemed pretty good...of course I was drinking previously and when I'm drunk, EVERYTHING tastes good so who knows.
MY SERIOUS, INTELLECTUAL SIDE:
Survey for Fours. :) Alright, I was at Theodore Millon's web site and checking out the summaries of the personality disorders and I wanted to know which of the following best describes you as a Four.
DEPRESSIVE PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Disconsolate (e.g., appearance and posture conveys and irrelievably forlorn, somber, heavy-hearted, woebegone, if not grief-stricken quality; irremediably dispirited and discouraged, portraying a sense of permanent hopelessness and wretchedness).
(F) Interpersonally Defenseless (e.g., owing to feeling vulnerable, assailable, and unshielded, will beseech others to be nurturant and protective; fearing abandonment and desertion, will not only act in an endangered manner, but seek, if not demand assurances of affection, steadfastness, and devotion).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Pessimistic (e.g., possesses defeatist and fatalistic attitudes about almost all matters, sees things in their blackest form and invariably expects the worst; feeling weighed down, discouraged, and bleak, gives the gloomiest interpretation of current events, despairing as well that things will never improve in the future).
(S) Worthless Self-Image (e.g., judges oneself of no account, valueless to self or others, inadequate and unsuccessful in all aspirations; barren, sterile, impotent, sees self as inconsequential and reproachable, if not contemptible, a person who should be criticized and derogated, as well as feel guilty for possessing no praiseworthy traits or achievements).
(S) Forsaken Objects (e.g., internalized representations of the past appear jettisoned, as if life's early experiences have been depleted or devitalized, either drained of their richness and joyful elements, or withdrawn from memory, leaving one to feel abandoned, bereft, and discarded, cast off and deserted).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Asceticism Mechanism (e.g., engages in acts of self-denial, self-punishment, and self-tormenting, believing that one should exhibit penance and be deprived of life's bounties; not only is there a repudiation of pleasures, but there are harsh self-judgments, as well as self-destructive acts).
(S) Depleted Organization (e.g., the scaffold for morphologic structures is markedly weakened, with coping methods enervated and defensive strategies impoverished, emptied and devoid of their vigor and focus, resulting in a diminished, if not exhausted capacity to initiate action and regulate affect, impulse, and conflict).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Melancholic Mood (e.g., is typically woeful, gloomy, tearful, joyless, and morose; characteristically worrisome and brooding, the low spirits and dysphoric state rarely remits).
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AVOIDANT PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Fretful (e.g., conveys personal unease and disquiet, a constant timorous, hesitant and restive state; overreacts to innocuous events and anxiously judges them to signify ridicule, criticism, and disapproval).
(F) Interpersonally Aversive (e.g., distances from activities that involve intimate personal relationships and reports extensive history of social pan-anxiety and distrust; seeks acceptance, but is unwilling to get involved unless certain to be liked, maintaining distance and privacy to avoid being shamed and humiliated).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Distracted (e.g., warily scans environment for potential threats and is preoccupied by intrusive and disruptive random thoughts and observations; an upwelling from within of irrelevant ideation upsets thought continuity and interferes with social communications and accurate appraisals).
(S) Alienated Self-Image (e.g., sees self as socially inept, inadequate, and inferior, justifying thereby his or her isolation and rejection by others; feels personally unappealing, devalues self-achievements, and reports persistent sense of aloneness and emptiness).
(S) Vexatious Objects (e.g., internalized representations are composed of readily reactivated, intense and conflict-ridden memories of problematic early relations; limited avenues for experiencing or recalling gratification, and few mechanisms to channel needs, bind impulses, resolve conflicts or deflect external stressors).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Fantasy Mechanism (e.g., depends excessively on imagination to achieve need gratification, confidence building, and conflict resolution; withdraws into reveries as a means of safely discharging frustrated affectionate, as well as angry impulses).
(S) Fragile Organization (e.g., a precarious complex of tortuous emotions depend almost exclusively on a single modality for its resolution and discharge, that of avoidance, escape and fantasy and, hence, when faced with personal risks, new opportunities, or unanticipated stress, few morphologic structures are available to deploy and few back-up positions can be reverted to, short of regressive decompensation).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Anguished Mood (e.g., describes constant and confusing undercurrent of tension, sadness and anger; vacillates between desire for affection, fear of rebuff, embarrassment, and numbness of feeling).
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NEGATIVISTIC PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Resentful (e.g., resists fulfilling expectancies of others, frequently exhibiting procrastination, inefficiency and obstinate, as well as contrary and irksome behaviors; reveals gratification in demoralizing and undermining the pleasures and aspirations of others).
(F) Interpersonally Contrary (e.g., assumes conflicting and changing roles in social relationships, particularly dependent and contrite acquiescence and assertive and hostile independence; conveys envy and pique toward those more fortunate, as well as actively concurrently or sequentially obstructive and intolerant of others, expressing either negative or incompatible attitudes).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Skeptical (e.g., is cynical, doubting, and untrusting, approaching positive events with disbelief, and future possibilities with pessimism, anger, and trepidation; has a misanthropic view of life, is whining and grumbling, voicing disdain and caustic comments toward those experiencing good fortune).
(S) Discontented Self-Image (e.g., sees self as misunderstood, luckless, unappreciated, jinxed, and demeaned by others; recognizes being characteristically embittered, disgruntled and disillusioned with life).
(S) Vacillating Objects (e.g., internalized representations of the past comprise a complex of countervailing relationships, setting in motion contradictory feelings, conflicting inclinations, and incompatible memories that are driven by the desire to degrade the achievements and pleasures of others, without necessarily appearing so).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Displacement Mechanism (e.g., discharges anger and other troublesome emotions either precipitously or by employing unconscious maneuvers to shift them from their instigator to settings or persons of lesser significance; vents disapproval by substitute or passive means, such as acting inept or perplexed, or behaving in a forgetful or indolent manner).
(S) Divergent Organization (e.g., there is a clear division in the pattern of morphologic structures such that coping and defensive maneuvers are often directed toward incompatible goals, leaving major conflicts unresolved and full psychic cohesion often impossible by virtue of the fact that fulfillment of one drive or need inevitably nullifies or reverses another).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Irritable Mood (e.g., frequently touchy, temperamental, and peevish, followed in turn by sullen and moody withdrawal; is often petulant and impatient, unreasonably scorns those in authority and reports being annoyed easily or frustrated by many).
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BORDERLINE PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Spasmodic (e.g., displays a desultory energy level with sudden, unexpected and impulsive outbursts; abrupt, endogenous shifts in drive state and inhibitory controls; not only places activation and emotional equilibrium in constant jeopardy, but engages in recurrent suicidal or self-mutilating behaviors).
(F) Interpersonally Paradoxical (e.g., although needing attention and affection, is unpredictably contrary, manipulative and volatile, frequently eliciting rejection rather than support; frantically reacts to fears of abandonment and isolation, but often in angry, mercurial, and self-damaging ways).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Capricious (e.g., experiences rapidly changing, fluctuating and antithetical perceptions or thoughts concerning passing events, as well as contrasting emotions and conflicting thoughts toward self and others, notably love, rage, and guilt; vacillating and contradictory reactions are evoked in others by virtue of one's behaviors, creating, in turn, conflicting and confusing social feedback).
(S) Uncertain Self-Image (e.g., experiences the confusions of an immature, nebulous or wavering sense of identity, often with underlying feelings of emptiness; seeks to redeem precipitate actions and changing self-presentations with expressions of contrition and self-punitive behaviors).
(S) Incompatible Objects ( e.g., internalized representations comprise rudimentary and extemporaneously devised, but repetitively aborted learnings, resulting in conflicting memories, discordant attitudes, contradictory needs, antithetical emotions, erratic impulses, and clashing strategies for conflict reduction).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Regression Mechanism (e.g., retreats under stress to developmentally earlier levels of anxiety tolerance, impulse control and social adaptation; among adolescents, is unable to cope with adult demands and conflicts, as evident in immature, if not increasingly infantile behaviors).
(S) Split Organization (e.g., inner structures exist in a sharply segmented and conflictful configuration in which a marked lack of consistency and congruency is seen among elements, levels of consciousness often shift and result in rapid movements across boundaries that usually separate contrasting percepts, memories, and affects, all of which leads to periodic schisms in what limited psychic order and cohesion may otherwise be present, often resulting in transient, stress-related psychotic episodes).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Labile Mood (e.g., fails to accord unstable mood level with external reality; has either marked shifts from normality to depression to excitement, or has periods of dejection and apathy, interspersed with episodes of inappropriate and intense anger, as well as brief spells of anxiety or euphoria).
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MASOCHISTIC PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Abstinent (e.g., presents self as nonindulgent, frugal and chaste; is reluctant to seek pleasurable experiences, refraining from exhibiting signs of enjoying life; acts in an unpresuming and self-effacing manner, preferring to place self in an inferior light or abject position).
(F) Interpersonally Deferential (e.g., distances from those who are consistently supportive, relating to others where one can be sacrificing, servile and obsequious, allowing, if not encouraging them to exploit, mistreat, or take advantage; renders ineffectual the attempts of others to be helpful and solicits condemnation by accepting undeserved blame and courting unjust criticism).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Diffident (e.g., hesitant to interpret observations positively for fear that, in doing so, they may not take problematic forms, or achieve troublesome and self-denigrating outcomes; as a result, there is a habit of repeatedly expressing attitudes and anticipations contrary to favorable beliefs and feelings).
(S) Undeserving Self-Image (e.g., is self-abasing, focusing on the very worst personal features, asserting thereby that one is worthy of being shamed, humbled and debased; feels that one has failed to live up to the expectations of others and hence, deserves to suffer painful consequences).
(S) Discredited Objects (e.g., object representations are composed of failed past relationships and disparaged personal achievements, of positive feelings and erotic drives transposed into their least attractive opposites, of internal conflicts intentionally aggravated, of mechanisms for reducing dysphoria being subverted by processes which intensify discomfort).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Exaggeration Mechanism (e.g., repetitively recalls past injustices and anticipates future disappointments as a means of raising distress to homeostatic levels; undermines personal objectives and sabotages good fortunes so as to enhance or maintain accustomed level of suffering and pain).
(S) Inverted Organization (e.g., owing to a significant reversal of the pain-pleasure polarity, morphologic structures have contrasting and dual qualities*one more or less conventional, the other its obverse*resulting in a repetitive undoing of affect and intention, of a transposing of channels of need gratification with those leading to frustration, and of engaging in actions which produce antithetical, if not self-sabotaging consequences).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Dysphoric Mood (e.g., experiences a complex mix of emotions, at times anxiously apprehensive, at others forlorn and mournful, to feeling anguished and tormented; intentionally displays a plaintive and wistful appearance, frequently to induce guilt and discomfort in others).
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HISTRIONIC PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Dramatic (e.g., is overreactive, volatile, provocative, and engaging, as well as intolerant of inactivity, resulting in impulsive, highly emotional, and theatrical responsiveness; describes penchant for momentary excitements, fleeting adventures, and short-sighted hedonism).
(F) Interpersonally Attention-Seeking (e.g., actively solicits praise and manipulates others to gain needed reassurance, attention and approval; is demanding, flirtatious, vain and seductively exhibitionistic, especially when wishing to be the center of attention).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Flighty (e.g., avoids introspective thought, is overly suggestible, attentive to fleeting external events, and speaks in impressionistic generalities; integrates experiences poorly, resulting in scattered learning and thoughtless judgments).
(S) Gregarious Self-Image (e.g., views self as sociable, stimulating and charming; enjoys the image of attracting acquaintances by physical appearance and by pursuing a busy and pleasure-oriented life).
(S) Shallow Objects (e.g., internalized representations are composed largely of superficial memories of past relations, random collections of transient and segregated affects and conflicts, as well as insubstantial drives and mechanisms).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Dissociation Mechanism (e.g., regularly alters and recomposes self-presentations to create a succession of socially attractive but changing facades; engages in self-distracting activities to avoid reflecting on and integrating unpleasant thoughts and emotions).
(S) Disjointed Organization (e.g., there exists a loosely knit and carelessly united morphologic structure in which processes of internal regulation and control are scattered and unintegrated, with ad hoc methods for restraining impulses, coordinating defenses, and resolving conflicts, leading to mechanisms that must, of necessity, be broad and sweeping to maintain psychic cohesion and stability, and, when successful, only further isolate and disconnect thoughts, feelings and actions).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Fickle Mood (e.g., displays rapidly-shifting and shallow emotions; is vivacious, animated, impetuous and exhibits tendencies to be easily enthused and as easily angered or bored).
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NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY
Behavioral Level:
(F) Expressively Haughty (e.g., acts in an arrogant, supercilious, pompous, and disdainful manner, flouting conventional rules of shared social living, viewing them as naive or inapplicable to self; reveals a careless disregard for personal integrity and a self-important indifference to the rights of others).
(F) Interpersonally Exploitive (e.g., feels entitled, is unempathic and expects special favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities; shamelessly takes others for granted and uses them to enhance self and indulge desires).
Phenomenological Level:
(F) Cognitively Expansive (e.g., has an undisciplined imagination and exhibits a preoccupation with immature and self-glorifying fantasies of success, beauty or love; is minimally constrained by objective reality, takes liberties with facts and often lies to redeem self-illusions).
(S) Admirable Self-Image (e.g., believes self to be meritorious, special, if not unique, deserving of great admiration, and acting in a grandiose or self-assured manner, often without commensurate achievements; has a sense of high self-worth, despite being seen by others as egotistic, inconsiderate, and arrogant).
(S) Contrived Objects (e.g., internalized representations are composed far more than usual of illusory and changing memories of past relationships; unacceptable drives and conflicts are readily refashioned as the need arises, as are others often simulated and pretentious).
Intrapsychic Level:
(F) Rationalization Mechanism (e.g., is self-deceptive and facile in devising plausible reasons to justify self-centered and socially inconsiderate behaviors; offers alibis to place oneself in the best possible light, despite evident shortcomings or failures).
(S) Spurious Organization (e.g., morphologic structures underlying coping and defensive strategies tend to be flimsy and transparent, appear more substantial and dynamically orchestrated than they are in fact, regulating impulses only marginally, channeling needs with minimal restraint, and creating an inner world in which conflicts are dismissed, failures are quickly redeemed, and self-pride is effortlessly reasserted).
Biophysical Level:
(S) Insouciant Mood (e.g., manifests a general air of nonchalance, imperturbability, and feigned tranquility; appears coolly unimpressionable or buoyantly optimistic, except when narcissistic confidence is shaken, at which time either rage, shame, or emptiness is briefly displayed).
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That's a bit to read, but all of those personality styles have been referenced in regards to Fours. The Avoidant and Depressive personalities would match with 4w5 I think, while the Negativistic, Histrionic, and Narcissistic match better with 4w3. The Borderline doesn't appear to prefer one wing over the other. Does any particular type really stand out as descriptive of you or are you pretty much the same of all the types? Please let me know. Thanks.
-Cory