Greg,
Actually you're quite right, this isnt the forum to be throwing around this
sort of jargon. It is a bit of an issue amongst those involved in research
areas, particularly those researching whether Critical incident stress
debriefing actually makes any long term difference to the development of
Post traumatic stress disorder. or whether peer support programs make any
difference or contribute to the well being of individuals. Particularly as
the Peer support programs are expensive to set up and need time to run
properly. Once again how do you evaluate their worth? Apart from the
`feel good' factor.
Somehow we have to be able to measure `morale' I think.
Anyway a definition, `A Personality Disorder is an enduring pattern of inner
experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the
individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in
adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress
or impairment'.
(DSM IV). They include the following sub categories, and again Im risking
`jargon' a bit here, Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal, Antisocial,
Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive.
The above is a clinical definition of course.
I have found a few of the above in Aviators and quite a few that have some
of the above traits without qualifying for the diagnosis as such. Those
that have received a PTSD diagnosis from my experience have had a
co-existing personality style or disorder that has made them vunerable.
I can give definitions of the sub categories if you like, but I expect the
group wouldnt be interested. Im thinking of a way I can bring it into the
Peer training Im doing with a few groups at the moment at least for
interesting discussion, I dont use the definitions/diagnosis but `cluster'
some of the traits into sensible discussion topics, that will translate into
better Peer support eventually, hopefully and to knock a bit of healthy
cynicism into a few of them before they end up with `secondary PTSD' themselves.
Lots of enthusiasm and not enough knowledge can hurt ? - I think so.
Kerry (Psi)
from Cairns on the beautiful Great Barrier Reef.
And Im not saying the above are good or bad.
>Greg,
>I see you are as belligerant towards researchers as ever ;)
>It is always the same question for you (and it is a good question) "what is
>the practical application? Can we use it?"
>
>I asked the question because I wanted to know where research was at on the
>topic. I thought it had application for stress management and team
>monitoring, and perhaps they had some pointers for us on how to handle
>acute stress both during and after the event.
>
>I also thought the term 'personality disorder' had some pretty nasty lay
>connotations (as you seem to have picked up on) and I wanted the author of
>the comment to clarify it for us before we go off on another round of
>psych-bashing
>
>Ash
>Ashleigh Merritt
>DŽdale,
>4 Place de Londres,
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>