The Impulsive Personality: Understanding People with Destructive Character Disorders

1 The Author's Premises.- Character Traits Can Change.- Treatment Is a Means of Changing Character.- Treatment and the Needs of the Individual.- Society's Unreasonable Expectations.- Social Pressures and Impulsive Behavior.- Staff Attitude and Impulsive Behavior.- Drug Addiction as a Manifestation of Impulsive Behavior.- Specific Premises about Drug-Addicted Impulsive Individuals.- 2 The Settings and the People.- Lexington.- The Composite Patient at Lexington.- A Psychiatric Hospital Setting.- An Outpatient Clinic for Drug Abusers.- 3 Character Disorders.- Personality Disorders.- Paranoid.- Schizoid.- Explosive.- Antisocial.- Passive-Aggressive.- Borderline Personalities.- Depression.- Low Self-Esteem.- Inability to Form Close Personal Relationships.- Manipulation.- Nonpsychotic Techniques of Avoidance.- Inability to Examine One's Own Behavior.- Action to Avoid Feeling.- Other People Are Unreal.- No Continuity in Patterns of Events.- Inability to Tolerate Criticism.- Inability to Plan.- Inability to Delay Gratification.- Entitlement.- No Experience Bearing Anxiety or Discomfort.- Self-Destruction.- Examples of Depression.- 4 Developmental Defect.- Normal Development.- Loss.- Reactions to the Loss.- Guilt and Conscience.- Inadequate Personal Relationships.- Summary.- 5 Games.- Kinds of Games.- Killing with Kindness.- Contracts.- Peace at Any Price.- Secret Deals.- Distractions.- "I'm No Racist".- Poor Communication.- Goal Disharmony.- "Uh, Huh,I Knew It AU Along".- Sliding by, or "I'm No Trouble".- Good Guy-Bad Guy, or Splitting.- Jailhouse Lawyer.- The Lame Game.- Forget the Past.- Sulk.- Stir Him Up.- Confrontation Avoidance.- Focus on the Specific to Avoid the General Issue.- A Rose by Any Other Name.- No Loss Allowed.- Do as I Say, Not as I Do.- Going Through the Motions.- False Optimism.- Summary.- 6 Violence.- Destructiveness Outside of Treatment.- The Inherent Nature of Violence.- 7 A Graphic Approach to Understanding Intrapersonal Processes.- 8 Treatment.- Preconceived Distortions.- Gaining the Patient's Attention.- Structure, Limits, Goals.- Transference-Countertransference.- "Different Strokes for Different Folks".- Alcohol.- Sedative-Hypnotic Addiction.- Opiates.- Treatment Modalities.- Conclusion.