Internal Conflict Of A Hysterical Personality. Difference From Narcissistic Personality

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The hysterical type of personality today is usually called histrionic from the Latin "histrio", in turn borrowed from the Etruscan language, the concept of "actor on stage". Thus, "histrionic" means theatrical, superemotional

The term "hysterical" has a gender connotation. is formed from the word "uterus", so a more suitable alternative was found for him, not related to gender, but to character traits.

Before Freud took up the study of hysteria, it was generally accepted that hysteria was a disorder specific to women. Otherwise, hysteria was called uterine rabies. However, Freud came to the conclusion that hysterical behavior is also characteristic of men. The master of psychoanalysis noted the features of such behavior, among other things.

A personality with a hysterical character can be recognized by the following signs:

1. Theatricality of behavior, grotesque emotions;

2. Symptoms of conversion neurosis (sudden attacks of psychogenic deafness, blindness, paralysis, fainting, etc.);

3. Childishness, periodic demonstration of childish behavior;

4. Increased suggestibility;

5. Choice of public activities (artist, coach, preacher, presenter, lecturer, etc.).

6. Positioning yourself as a Don Juan, a sex symbol, an alpha female.

7. Attacks of artistic rage. The anger of a hysterical personality is also always theatrical and resembles a game on stage.

The main marker by which a hysterical personality type can be recognized is, of course, theatrical behavior and superemotionality.

Since childhood, hysterical men and women love to try on some vivid roles and play them in life. They can see on TV some cartoon character, movie hero, and in life they try to play fragments of his role, imitating his voice, external data, demeanor.

Such people tend to come up with some events in their lives and believe in it, embellish reality.

I have been friends since childhood with a hysterical girl. At the age of 16, she could come up with and colorfully tell a story that allegedly happened to her, how she met a handsome guy and his friends, rode with them in a new Mercedes, he called her to the Maldives. She very sincerely believed in what she was telling, her classmates listened to her with admiration and envy at the same time, asked to introduce them into her mysterious circle, to introduce them to these guys. A friend promised that she would introduce her. By doing this, she kept her popularity for a while. But the moment came when it was necessary to keep the promise. Then a friend gathered in one place all the girls in the class and acted out a tragedy in front of them with tears and hysteria, she wrung her hands and tragically said that recently a guy told her that he had met another. Then the second part of the "Merleson Ballet" was played out, when everyone began to sympathize with her, to feel sorry for her. Only to me she once confessed that all this is fiction. She also had magical thinking. She believed that she was endowed with some kind of super-strength, she could punish the offender with the help of a conspiracy. In the temple, during the service, where her mother brought her, she fainted all the time, explaining this by the fact that the people around her were taking her energy.

My friend grew up in a dysfunctional family environment with a cruel father, was a frequent witness to his scandals with his mother. In every man, she subsequently saw a father, an authoritative person who would finally love and protect her. At the same time, men caused her fear and at times dislike. She wanted to receive their love and protection and, at the same time, to make them safe for herself, to disarm them. To this end, various manipulations were used - first of all, charm and sexuality. From an early age, she felt in herself the power of her charm and some power over men. Then she was very fond of being fashionable - from the age of 5 she put on bright beads, boots with high heels, and so she defiled in front of the males in her family and on the street. She could sing and dance in front of them, make merry. When a friend saw how angry they were, she was frightened, thinking that it had something to do with her, and began to cry. This habit has been preserved in her to this day. During a quarrel with her husband, she began to cry and at that moment resembled a little girl with a strict father. Theatricality and withdrawal into an imaginary reality helped her to attract attention, to feel special, and to endure the difficult situation in the family easier.

Hysterical boys in childhood I almost never met. I recall only a recent case when my parents brought a 13-year-old teenager to me for diagnosis. The boy was hypertym in character, played the piano. There was a trait in him that distinguished him, attracted attention - intelligent speech (he correctly constructed complex sentences, correctly placed stress, intonation), there was mannerism in his behavior, he resembled a young aristocrat, although his parents were the most simple people. Also, from the first seconds he began to experience the power of his charm on me, from mannered he became cheerful, like a clown, he began to parody Harry Potter. This was a person who undoubtedly promised to be outstanding.

Hysterical defenses are formed in a child as a response to the aggression of the surrounding world: in order to soften someone's anger, they must be charming, sweet and vulnerable, in order to win friends - they must be bright and interesting, in order to cope with frustration, they must resort to the strength of their own imagination.

The internal conflict of the hysterical personality is associated with the girl's Electra complex, which manifests itself in rivalry with the mother for the father's attention, and with the boys' Oedipus complex (rivalry with the father for the mother's attention).

The oedipal conflict is resolved for the girl safely when the father recognizes her beauty and attractiveness for himself, but says that he already has a woman - this is her mother, and she will definitely meet her man in the future, who will also love her.

Neurotization is formed during an unresolved oedipal conflict, when the father is cold with his daughter, behaves aloof, critical, devaluing and even cruel. Such a father figuratively castrates the normal expression of her sexuality. In this case, the girl develops an idea of men as, on the one hand, strong, domineering, authoritative, sexual, and, on the other hand, frightening, carrying a threat. The feeling of a threat from men, in the perception of a hysterical woman, can become a serious obstacle to achieving full arousal and orgasmic discharge. That is why hysterical women often have a seated sexual desire or frigidity, masking it with ostentatious hypersexuality, surrounding themselves with many men, thus receiving confirmation of their attractiveness, or transforming their libido into somatic ailments.

Demonstration of her sexuality, outrageousness, childish spontaneity, touchiness serves as a weapon for a hysterical woman, giving power over men and the ability to control them, as well as a way to get attention, love, which she lacked in childhood.

Similarly, if a boy did not receive confirmation of his attractiveness from his mother, if his mother behaved rudely and inattentively with him, then in later life this boy most often becomes a Don Juan, always in search of a loving mother. The fear of women prevents him from going for real intimacy in a relationship, and sexualization and the role of a charming boy are also a way of protection and control.

In the behavior and perception of hysterical women and men, childishness, naivety, and childishness are often observed. There are many gigolos among hysterical men, and kept women among women.

Of course, a hysterical character or its features can be inherited, assimilated as a pattern as a result of observing a hysterical family member or as a result of reinforcing a hysterical style of behavior (a hysterical child can skip school, constantly drawing parents' attention to sudden bodily ailments in themselves, and parents, instead of figuring out why the child does not want to go to school, go on about his illnesses, sit on sick leave, run to the doctors; also, the parent can admire how cleverly the child comes up with some incredible stories about himself or skillfully deceives, go on about his tantrums, etc.).

The hysterical personality, like all other personality types, can have narcissistic defenses. She can devalue people if they do not participate in maintaining her image of a bright, successful, popular person, do not admire her, show insufficient interest, do not contribute to the achievement of her narcissistic plans. A hysterical person wants to see an almighty partner next to him who will protect her or punish all her offenders, if necessary.

In life, a hysterical person continues to see in his partner someone who is called upon to compensate for the "shortcomings" of parents who did not intercede, did not come to matinees, parent meetings, etc.

Hysterical personalities are very sensitive and suggestible, they take a lot to heart, including their sexual desires and impulses, which is why they are often prone to psychosomatics (gastrointestinal disorders, VSD, sudden attacks of deafness, amnesia, paralysis of a psychogenic nature). In contrast to the narcissistic, "thick-skinned" personality.

At the same time, a truly hysterical person does not experience the feeling of emptiness inherent in narcissists. A hysterical personality has a rich inner world, some plans, projects, thoughts about how to surround yourself with a retinue, how to be in sight are constantly swarming in my head.

In old age, a hysterical person often becomes a hypochondriac, knocking over the doorsteps of hospitals and attracting the attention of doctors with his unusual and incessant ailments, strikes into religion or other practices.

The narcissistic person looks at others more as an object of his own entourage, is cold and calculating.

A description of the character of Appolinaria Suslova, the mistress of F. M. Dostoevsky, a pronounced sadistic woman:

Suslova quickly became carried away, built ideal images - and was sharply disappointed. And since she did not know how to forgive and did not know condescension, this disappointment immediately turned into irony and mercilessness, into anger and cruelty. Apollinaria herself sometimes suffered from this, her demands for life and people fatally doomed her to defeats and blows, and this cast a tragic shadow over her entire existence.

This woman is a phenomenon of pathological egoism and sophisticated sadism in relation to her loved ones. All her life she caused pain and humiliation to others."

The narcissistic personality is often devoid of compassion, a sense of duty, moral principles, driven only by his own selfishness. It can be noted its psychopathic orientation.

The hysterical personality has a more altruistic orientation, is capable of feeling pity, compassion.

Also, a narcissistic personality, unlike a hysterical one, is often devoid of theatrical manifestations, hypersensitivity, emotionality.

Of course, you can find a combination of narcissistic and hysterical traits in one character, then it becomes difficult to differentiate one personality from another, but it is available in the course of long-term observation and deep psychotherapy.

With histrionic personality disorder, the desire to stand out acquires pathological features, a person becomes unbridled in his hysterical anger, can harm both himself and others, often performs shocking public actions, for example, declares a hunger strike in Red Square, chains himself to a temple (hysterical masochist).

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Author: Burkova Elena Viktorovna