New typology: Millon personality styles/disorders

[Economica]

I'm currently geeking a new typology, the Millon personality styles/disorders, and I thought I'd share it with Typology Central.

There are 15 types, each of which overlap with one or more personality disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Each type ranges from a healthy, mild version (a personality style) to a dysfunctional version (a personality disorder). The types are:

Cooperative/Dependent
Sociable/Histrionic
Confident/Narcissistic
Nonconforming/Antisocial
Assertive/Sadistic
Conscientious/Compulsive
Skeptical/Negativistic
Retiring/Schizoid
Shy/Avoidant
Pessimistic/Melancholic
Aggrieved/Masochistic
Eccentric/Schizotypal
Capricious/Borderline
Suspicious/Paranoid
Exuberant/Hypomaniac

The graduation from style to disorder affords a framework for taking disordered tendencies seriously. For example, one does not need to be a full-blown narcissist with no empathy whatsoever in order to suffer from the consequences of an overblown assumption of personal superiority that prompts one to rest on one's (aggrandized) laurels.

Excellent descriptions of the clinical picture, self-perpetuation processes, therapeutic interventional goals and more of 14 of the types can be found in these two books (7 in each book): 1 2

The typology nicely supplements MBTI. For instance, I know INFJs of the following Millon types: Cooperative/Dependent, Confident/Narcissistic and Pessimistic/Melancholic. Suddenly it makes better sense why one is overly cooperative and acquiescent, yielding and placating everywhere he goes, while another can come across as proud and haughty and yet another tends to play the victim and has been known to solicit sympathy for his vulnerability through passive-aggressive means. (Uh, they're also generally decent peple - this is a negative typology, did I forget to mention that upfront? ) So even though the information about the types available online is sparse, I'm throwing up a poll.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

I believe a typology with 1000,000 types has lost the functional, practical value of a typology.

 

[Economica]

I believe a typology with 1000,000 types has lost the functional, practical value of a typology.

Note to members who miss having me around: Blame post(er)s like the above.

 

[Lady_X]

oh...i wanted a test. there's no test. :/

 

[JocktheMotie]

Eccentric/Schizotypal, probably followed by Retiring/Schizoid.

 

[Lady_X]

oh fantastic! :/

if i had to choose...possibly this.
Sociable/Histrionic Personality

 

[miss fortune]

none of them fit... at all

 

[JocktheMotie]

none of them fit... at all

It's tough because they mostly describe what one is like when operating as notthis/THIS. A healthier individual will identify with the first term first [or more accurately, with the grouping on that circle] and the second term only if they exhibit disorder characteristics.

 

[Lady_X]

It's tough because they mostly describe what one is like when operating as notthis/THIS. A healthier individual will identify with the first term first [or more accurately, with the grouping on that circle] and the second term only if they exhibit disorder characteristics.

agreed it's like you have this bit about your personality that if left unchecked could manifest in this way...not to say it does tho. that's how i see it anyway as i know i am not a lot of those things listed...but...i could be...you know, if i were a wretched person.

 

[Virtual ghost]

The best match for me is shizoid. However I have much more Te than that description says.

 

[JocktheMotie]

The best match for me is shizoid. However I have much more Te than that description says.

Yeah I hated that one. "Impoverished" Cognitive Style? Well, fuck you Millon!

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Note to members who miss having me around: Blame post(er)s like the above.

No sense of humor?

 

[Jaguar]

I believe a typology with 1000,000 types has lost the functional, practical value of a typology.

Are you after the truth about an individual person, or a bunch of stereotypical statements about a group of people which may not even be true?

 

[Virtual ghost]

Yeah I hated that one. "Impoverished" Cognitive Style? Well, fuck you Millon!

Yeap, but the entire "emotional wasteland" and not that much interested in being close to people thing fits me better than everything else here.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Are you after the truth about an individual person, or a bunch of stereotypical statements about a group of people which may not even be true?

Well, to respond to this in seriousness, if you don't think people can be encompassed in categories, then you reject all physchological typology. That is your choice, but then I'm not sure why you are here. It would sort of put you in Victor's camp.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

Okay. I tried to read the site ^ in more depth, but found it convoluted and difficult to follow. But I read enough to feel like his work warrants more delving, so I wikied him and got this:

Millon devised a set of widely acknowledged subtypes for each of the DSM personality disorders:[7][8]
Sadistic personality disorder subtypes
Self-defeating (masochistic) personality disorder subtypes
Schizotypal personality disorder subtypes
Schizoid personality disorder subtypes
Paranoid personality disorder subtypes
Antisocial personality disorder subtypes
Borderline personality disorder subtypes
Histrionic personality disorder subtypes
Narcissistic personality disorder subtypes
Dependent personality disorder subtypes
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder subtypes
Avoidant personality disorder subtypes
Passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder subtypes
Depressive personality disorder subtypes
Exuberant/Hypomanic personality disorder subtypes


So, he basically took the DSM and made personality types/disorders from psychological diagnoses, I gather. If you click on the OCD one you get these subtypes:

five subtypes of compulsive.[15][16] Any individual compulsive may exhibit none or one of the following:
conscientious compulsive - including dependent features
puritanical compulsive - including paranoid features.
bureaucratic compulsive - including narcissistic features
parsimonious compulsive - including schizoid features. Resembles Fromm's hoarding orientation[17]
bedeviled compulsive - including negativistic (passive-aggressive) features


It's another take on personality diagnoses, but I still like Jung's interpretations and discoveries better. Millon has taken abnormal and tried to tie normal into it, which doesn't work so well because by default people are normal, not abnormal. I prefer to add to or tweak Jung's theory with a "loop" or "knot" concept to arrive at neurosis or psychosis, or to just plain think about combining Jung's theory with other personality/psychology/cognitive/biological/etc theories to arrive at a more comprehensive personality theory.

But it's interesting to see all that's out there in personology.

 

[cascadeco]

Shy/Avoidant is probably closest for me; it certainly sums up quite a bit of my youth

 

[OrangeAppled]

Shy/Avoidant Personality is definitely the best fit.

Shades of myself in these:
Pessimistic/Melancholic Personality
Skeptical/Negativistic Personality
Eccentric/Schizotypal Personality
Suspicious/Paranoid Personality

 

[Mole]

It would sort of put you in Victor's camp.

God forbid.

 

[Oom]

I had to go with Capricious/Borderline. The part about being uncertain about self image hit the spot.