Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! On today's episode I try to tackle a pretty frustrating dilemma in the field by addressing the question: what is trauma versus what is personality? I'm not sure how "hot" of a take this is, but my general sense is the consensus has moved towards trauma and adversity being everything, which inadvertently diminishes the human experience into something both conceptually and clinically unhelpful. I offer my thoughts and some potential guidance for providers.KEY CONCEPTWe are more than either our experiences or our reported symptoms.

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! On today's episode, I do a follow-up on my Narcissistic Personality Disorder series, where - while I do have an episode on gender - I needed to do a deeper dive and do some additional research myself. As I lay out in the episode, we arrive upon a point already made in the original series: the dominance of the "covert" subtype for women. However, I also try to give an experiential vibe for what this might look like in women. Put differently: while men and women are both represented in the covert narcissism subtype, are there differences based on gender? Let's take a look.KEY QUOTE"Experientially what this leads to is this really frustrating and really tragic experience of desiring and remembering that initial feeling of potential closeness. And all the permissions and space that you give [so that] maybe something can come of [it]. But then you have this emptiness that sits right next to it; that nothing ever comes of [the relationship]."

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! On today's episode, I'm doing a quick follow-up to my episode on "incels" and the potential links to Negativistic personality traits, speaking more specifically to the links to gender. A quote from this episode probably best captures my intent with this episode: "We do everyone a disservice - regardless of what personality; regardless of what social construct we are talking about - to not understand the greater context within which the problem has arisen."OTHER QUOTES"But there are absolutely messages that we are sending men and that we are sending masculinity that are not conducive for change; they are anti-feminist in nature."[Paraphrased] "We can point to the incels; we can point to personality disorders; we can point to any group that has serious issues they need to work through and accurately say they need to 'do better.' And then there's the additional reality that we as a society - and mental healthcare providers - need to do a better job supporting growth in a healthy direction."

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! On today's episode I tackle the topic of "incels." Now I'm sure this is a tired and old topic, but the theory of Negativistic Personalities is perhaps not. As I mention in the episode, Theodore Millon's theory around negativistic personalities has pre-existed this social construct known as "incels." That said, I don't do much with the gender component behind all of this; maybe for a future episode. I also might do some separate episodes on Negativism, too, just to be sure I'm honoring it properly akin to my other PD episodes.KEY QUOTES"I don't need to find a way to fit into this world and do better; the world is failing ME."

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! This is the fourth episode in a series about Antisocial Personality Disorder, with a focus on treating the condition - or really the variations of the condition. Unlike many of my personality series, we don't talk much about framing, countertransference, or anything of the likes. Rather, we talk about when deeper work is plausible and - importantly - the growing necessity to keep things strictly behavioral. Or, starkly, when we might not offer treatment at all.

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! This is the third episode in a series about Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), with a focus on the development of the condition. Once again, the development of the condition depends a lot about what "version" or "subtype" of ASPD we are talking about, given the flawed nature of the construct. As with most development episodes, we begin with nature meets nurture for the folks on the lower end of the spectrum (broader delinquency to Sociopathy), but then very quickly tread into the strongly biological and genetic presentation of Psychopathy and Sadism. I realize I did not talk much about normal development in this episode, but it's pretty simple and brief: everybody can have a little bit of delinquency in their lives due to flirting with "externalization" and testing limits, but anything close to ASPD represents a frequent and recurrent issue with illegality and social-systems manipulation.

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! This is the second episode in a series about Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), with a focus on subtypes of the personality disorder. As I mention in this episode, there are not "subtypes" per se; rather, we will talk more about the flawed nature of ASPD and a sort of "spectrum" upon which folks might exist. On one side, we have the more behavioral and contextual-trauma-related. On the other side, we have the addition of social and emotional detachment. And yes, a crowd favorite - psychopathy - is discussed!

Welcome to A Psychologist Talks! Today is the first episode in a series about Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). This is the first episode in a series about ASPD, with a focus on key elements of this personality, with an emphasis upon diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. Unlike my other personality series, there is going to be a lot of subtype- and developmental-like conversations that bleed between episodes (versus being relegated to their respective episodes), because there are foundational construct problems surrounding ASPD. Most specifically - and perhaps to the delight of viewers given the public fascination around it - psychopathy. I hope this provides a more useful take and conversation around key features. Meanwhile, I'm also not yet discussing psychodynamic theories behind the features (more commonly placed in this episode), but it'll be peppered in soon!