"Psychological Disorders" - Just Maladaptive Qualities of Intense Myers Briggs Personality Types?


Posted May 13, 2020 by positivephycology1

In the workplace, positive psychology is telling us that positive relationships ...

 
Before we begin, let's do an exaggerated analogy to our world. In a warrior society, a kind person who is a Buddhist (with good serotonin/dopamine production in his brain) would be diagnosed by warrior psychologists to suffer from "cowardice syndrome" and perhaps treated with liquor. Similarly in a kindly harmonious Buddhist society, an aggressive warrior would be diagnosed as having some sort of anti-social disorder and treated with whatever the monk psychiatrists deem proper.

In Myers Briggs personality typology descriptions, one can filter the most adaptive and maladaptive characteristics of each type. Assuming the type we're looking at is an acute one (say an ESTP with each letter being 60 or above), the so called "positives" and "negatives" can be extracted quickly. It then becomes very intuitively logical to think that some MBTI types are more likely to have some psychological "disorders" than others based on their default modes of being. All one has to do is match the descriptions of psych disorders with descriptions of MBTI types when they are not at their best and can't deal (say a stressed out low income and low education INFP in a country where ESTJs dominate culturally and expect everybody to be like them).

The reason why I put psych "disorders" into quote marks is that as hinted above, these maladaptive "conditions" appear to be (for the most part) physiological traits of different breeds of homo sapien when they are driven to the neurotic breaking point by social conditions. Negative psychology still dominates and only classifies conditions when they become the most apparent and severe. Usually that involves a certain breed of human being on a lower end of the socioeconomic scale who is compelled to seek help to continue functioning. The counterproductive nature of negative psychology (versus the emerging field of positive psychology) has been doing harm for over a century now.

In other words,

1) The dominant culture/socioeconomic system of a country is often closely correlated to a few dominant Myers Briggs types (extroverted Ts usually)

2) Breeds that physiologically differ from the herd's ruling breeds are compelled to participate in a socioeconomic system (run by the rulers) that is incompatible with them

3) If people who are incompatible with their system are wealthy and connected, they have more coping mechanisms to deal with stressors and avoid/lessen activation of their MBTI type's "negative" neurotic qualities

4) Those breeds likely to seek help (and have their condition classified and codified as science) have had the positive qualities of their MBTI type suppressed and negative ones exaggerated by the neurosis causing social stressors. They are likely to be from the poorer less educated end of the proletariat class and thus have more on their plates daily while not being able to verbalize whats ailing them as well. Even if they are from the arrogant proletariat faction that fancies itself as "middle class", they are still likely to be misinformed about the fundamental structural nature of their neurosis and defer to the so called experts within the corporation dominated field of negative psychology.

5) All of this is exacerbated when the economic pie is shrinking instead of expanding (this means a reversal of industrialization rather than constant material renewal of an industrialized country)

Let's start the journey towards matching what Myers-Briggs breeds are more likely to get a certain "disorder" classification for one of their more extreme members. As a baseline, the MBTI types to be matched are acute ones (60 or more on each letter). Some disorders may require only one function to be abnormally (statistically) high such as 100 F. Therefore, not all acute MBTI types would necessary match disorder descriptions but those acute MBTI types within the already acute pool of their brethren. This is an incomplete and imperfect list that will be upgraded as the time goes on. It is to serve as a starting point for discussion.

Autism Spectrum

More likely among ISTPs -The high Sensing function of close to 100 seems key as the nerves leading to the eyeballs are thicker than in most people. Temple Grandin, an autistic woman, explained wonderfully in her TED speech that she "thinks" in images rather than symbolically. She humorously mentions that the introverted scientists/inventors/technicians in the audience are probably touching the boundary of autism in some cases and that helps them in their detail specific work. The high Introversion explains the super low interpersonal communication skills and avoidance of social situations that are energy draining for the autistic.

The high T and emotionlessness explains the lack of close attachment to objects within the world during those rare times when the autistic person does decide to engage with the world (a blip of extroversion). The high P contributes to paralysis of action and super sensory overload. The brain is probably overcloked with video/audio inputs without a biological way to pleasingly utilize the data. The overall result is a person acting very much like somebody on dissociative drugs (capable of being closest to perfect robotic objective perception of the world without emotion clouding it).

Mood Disorders - Depressive and Bipolar (For emotional roller coasters to happen in the first place, one needs a super strong F function (again 90-100 range) to feel the extreme highs as well as the extreme lows. Other functions determine the specific mood disorder at work.)

Depression

More likely among ISFJs and ESFJs - Our current ENTJ/ENTP dominated society is very unfriendly to the self sacrificing SFJs. Rapid technological and cultural change, atomization of society and family by free market, and the dog eat dog interpersonal interactions are the most likely to have greatest negative impact on SFJs. Their helpfulness is not rewarded but ridiculed and duty bound SFJs are less likely to relax and party like their FP counterparts. Strong S makes them focus on their constant lack of affirmation by others in the here and now while the J contributes to an inflexible and emotionally charged moralistic system that is constantly seen by the S as being violated. Strong J also anchors the person in a depressed brooding mood with fewer interruptions into happier more elevated mode (see below).

Bipolar

More likely among the ENFPs and ESFPs - Considering the manic extroverted phase of a bipolar person, the high E appears key contributoralongside the very high F. The high P contributes to rapid switching of moods and their uncontrollability (contrasted to long continuous brooding on a certain emotional plane by a strong J). The extroverted FP goes towards the world full of energy and inspiration but gets shot down by the cynical social environment. Acute sensitivity to criticism and a strong P to observe how such criticism is warranted from many angles creates a severe emotional collapse and withdrawal into depressive phase. The constant emotional switching adds to mental confusion and sense of lack of control. These are the people who love to party and are all over the place but face severe crashes when encountering an environmental obstacle. Extroversion must be maintained and not bottled up unhealthily.

ADHD

More likely among ENFPs, ESFPs, ENTPs, and ESTPs - Key appears to be constant switching of perceptive angles by a P over 60 and a strong extroversion that makes the person go towards the world and feel dulled when that desire is frustrated. Also appears to be just a common childhood exploration phase of toddlers and children of most MBTI types.

Schizoid Personality

More likely among ISTJs, INTJs and possibly INTPs - Schizoids are marked by social isolation, emotional coldness, and indifference to others. Very impaired social functioning, extreme loneliness, and grandiose visions of extroversion. The above characteristics are obviously caused by same strong I and T as in the autistic but the schizoids are not totally overburdened with a sensory overload. This allows them to be creative at times. Political Ponerology makes an interesting case that Schizoids (due to them spending lots of time alone looking at the fast moving world with often vengeful fantasies) write the literature and constructs that inspires subclinical and clinical psychopaths.

Psychopathy

More likely among ENTJs, ENTPs - These are human herd's natural predators and feast on it if they get into power instead of improving it. The essential elements are a maximum high T of 100 for clinical psychopaths and a T over 60 for subclinical ones (the milder ones who have a foot in both the human world and the predatory world and who make natural politicians). This makes sure there is no emotional empathy for fellow homo sapien. They literally cannot feel the way others feel and this makes most people seem irrational and weak to them. The closest they have to emotion (that they confuse the concept with) is sexual arousal and aggression. The strong E makes them go towards the world and socialize intensely with their prey while the strong N intuition allows them to rapidly learn how to mimic their prey (smile, know what words with emotional meaning to say, etc).

There is debate in literature about whether the psychopaths cluster on J (left brain) or P(right brain) side or whether it's but a continuum of psychopathy. Most likely it's a continuum with different specialization of labor among predators. They share all the same characteristics except for ENTJ being mindlessly goal driven regardless the human cost (the bully) whereas the ENTP is disorganized but better able to emulate/get along with different humans and creatively exploit that ability (the Con Artist). Their lack of emotional intelligence and desire for exploitative shortcuts makes them poor technocrats, manual laborers, and high tech specialists. The subclinical ones could be steered in the right direction and made productive members of the community. They have additional "disorder" characterizations of hypomania and narcissism. My site Applied Positive Psychology https://www.schoolofpositivetransformation.com/positive-psychology-practitioner-certificate/


Schizotypal Personality Disorder

More likely among INTPs and INFPs - The key element seems to be a super high P that can create an overflow of perceptive data creating a pseudo-hallucination effect. An N of 100 and a P of 100 can easily create conspiracy theories that aren't there.

Borderline Personality Disorder

More likely among ESTPs - These very bored emotionless people (high P and T) live on the edge and thus make good soldiers or criminals. They don't have the intuition to be psychopaths and don't interact with too many diverse people as often since they wont get along. A super high E is key and makes them seek pursue entertainment in the here and now (S) that would be overwhelming to most.
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Last Updated May 13, 2020