Personality Disorders (In Dogs And Humans)
Phillip W. Long, M.D.
November 12th, 2005
The Brain And Social Behavior
The part of the brain that controls social behavior in mammals is very old (it is called the limbic lobe). Since this part of the mammalian brain hasn't changed much in the past few million years, many mammals exhibit nearly identical social behaviors. For example, dogs exhibit many human-like social behaviors. Both dogs and humans are social animals that arrange their societies in a hierarchal fashion with a “pecking order”.
How much of our personality is due to “nature” (biology) or “nurture” (experience) is still hotly debated. This “nature vs. nurture” problem is easier to grasp if we first study a simpler social animal, like the dog, before we tackle explaining human personality.
What Makes A Good Dog?
When adopting a dog, you usually want a dog having good personality traits, such as:
- Sociability: Owners want a friendly dog that enjoys socializing with the owner’s family as well as other dogs.
- Cooperativeness and Empathy: Owners want a dog that will be obedient and follow commands. Likewise, they want a dog that can sense their mood, so that the dog realizes when it has made the owner angry and will come sheepishly to the owner to apologize.
- Confidence: Owners want a confident dog that is not overly fearful or submissive. Insecure dogs are prone to “fear biting” when they become anxious.
- Calmness: Owners want a dog that is excited to greet their owner, but quickly calms with petting. They don’t want a nervous or agitated dog that can’t be calmed.
- Playfulness: Owners want a dog that enjoys playing with its owner. However, some dogs get over-excited when playing with their owner and can get out of control. Other dogs get too bossy or too rough when playing with their owner. Some dogs are too fearful or wary to play with their owner. Other dogs just don’t want to play and ignore their owner.
Problem dogs usually exhibit difficulties with:
- Selfishness and Aggressiveness: Some dogs aggressively guard their food and possessions, and bite any dog or human foolish enough to challenge them.
- Impulsiveness: Some dogs are very impulsive. They impulsively run off chasing after something at the slightest provocation. Often this behavior either gets them lost or run over by a car.
- Dominance: Some dogs are very dominant and literally control their submissive owners. You will see these dogs pulling their owners around on a leash, or involved in some other power struggle with their owner.
- Fear or Wariness: Some dogs are very fearful and wary of strangers. Some fearful, shy dogs eventually learn to trust their owner. However, other fearful dogs never learn to trust their owner and remain wary, aloof and distant.
- Separation Anxiety: Some dogs become hysterical when their owner leaves them. They howl or tear up furniture in a fearful rage. Some dogs bloody themselves trying to paw through walls or smash through glass doors trying to reunite with their owners.
- Attention-Seeking: Some dogs constantly demand attention from their owner. Yet the more attention the owner gives these dogs, the more excited and attention-seeking they become. The end result is that these demanding dogs are always jumping up on their owners or otherwise pestering their owner for more attention.
- Lack Of Affection: Owners want an affectionate dog that loves them. Unfortunately, some dogs never warm up to their owner and remain aloof and cold. In addition, other dogs never learn to trust their owner, and remain suspicious and isolated.
What Makes A Perfect Date?
Let’s change the topic now from dogs to humans.
Earlier we talked about well-adjusted dogs; now let's talk about well-adjusted humans. So here's a question. If you were going out on a first date, what personality traits would you want to see in your “perfect date”?
- Sociability: Perhaps the most important personality trait you would like to see in your date is friendliness. You want someone who enjoys socializing with you and others.
- Cooperativeness and Empathy: You would probably also want to date an easy-going, cooperative person. Probably this type of person would be understanding and sensitive to your feelings.
- Confidence: You would also want your date to be confident; not overly fearful or submissive.
- Calmness: Most people are attracted to calm people. They don’t want to date a nervous or agitated person.
- Playfulness: Probably you would also like a humorous, fun-loving date. However, most people don’t want a date who gets over-excited at a party and gets out of control. Likewise, you wouldn’t want a date who gets too bossy or too rough at a party. Some dates are too fearful or wary to join in the fun at a party. Other dates just aren’t playful and ignore you when you want to join in the fun at a party.
Let’s pause here and reflect. Did you just notice that all the personality traits that you would like to see in a “good dog” are the same personality traits you would like to see in your “perfect date”? Normal, well-adjusted mammals behave the same way socially.
Maladjusted mammals also behave the same way. Let’s now compare the way maladjusted humans behave on a “first date” to the previously mentioned problem dog behaviors:
- Selfishness and Aggressiveness: You probably wouldn’t want to date individuals who were selfish and talked just about themselves and what they wanted from you (usually sex). These dates would probably want to selfishly take possession of you at a party and aggressively challenge anyone who wanted to spend time with you,
- Impulsiveness: There is a difference between dating someone who is spontaneous and fun-loving, and someone who is recklessly impulsive. A recklessly impulsive date could accidentally kill you both with his/her reckless speeding in a car, or other high-risk, impulsive behavior (e.g., drug abuse). Also, impulsive people quickly fall in love, and equally quickly fall out of love and abandon you.
- Dominance: Some people are very dominant and bossy and will immediately try to control you. On a first date, the overly dominant person will keep insisting that you do things for them (e.g., drink more, or have sex) even after you have repeatedly refused. Life with people like this is a constant power struggle since these overly dominant individuals don’t know how to compromise. Overly dominant people always have to be “boss” and have everything their way.
- Fear or Wariness: On a first date, it is very difficult to warm up to a date who is fearful or wary of strangers. Some fearful, shy dates eventually learn to trust you, and become affectionate. However, other fearful dates never learn to trust you and remain wary, aloof and distant.
- Separation Anxiety: After a few dates, some individuals become very anxious or angry when their date spends less time with them or leaves them. These individual suffer from “separation anxiety” and suffer terribly when they feel abandoned. Some go to the extreme of cutting themselves or threatening suicide during an abandonment crisis.
- Attention-Seeking: Normally, a well-adjusted person enjoys receiving attention and finds it calming. However, some people become over-excited when they receive attention. The more attention you give them, the more they demand. This often can be seen in their sexual behavior or their need for praise. Eventually these individuals become very demanding with their constant need for attention, adoration or sex.
- Lack Of Affection: Most people want to date an affectionate person. Unfortunately, some dates never warm up and remain aloof and cold. In addition, other dates never learn to trust you, and remain suspicious or isolated.
Personality Disorder Classification
Psychiatrists have devised a useful way of classifying personality disorders (in the “DSM-IV” of the American Psychiatric Association). This classification system simply uses all the personality traits that we have already discussed in our “good dog” and “perfect date” examples.
This classification system can be thought of as organizing personality traits along three dimensions:
- “Good vs. Bad”:
- Where “good” is:
i. Sociable
ii. Cooperative and Empathic (sensitive to people’s feelings)
- Where “bad” is:
i. Selfish and Aggressive
ii. Recklessly Impulsive
- “Strong vs. Weak”:
- Where “strong” is:
i. Dominant
ii. Confident
- Where “weak” is:
i. Fearful
ii. Anxious When Separated
- “Active vs. Passive”:
- Where “active” is:
i. Attention-seeking
ii. Playful
- Where “passive” is:
i. Aloof, cold, distant
ii. Suspicious
Research has shown that many of the maladaptive personality traits occur together. Psychiatrists have identified 10 different ways these maldaptive personality traits commonly occur together. These 10 different maladaptive patterns are called personality disorders when these maladaptive personality traits persist into adulthood and become very distressing or disabling.
Many of these personality disorders are seldom seen in isolation; they usually are seen in association with other personality disorders of the same family or “cluster”. Personality disorders thus can be classified into three “clusters” (Table 1):
- Cluster A:
- Cluster B:
- Cluster C:
Table 1: Characteristics of Personality Disorders
|
| Good | Bad | Strong | Weak | Active | Passive | ||||||
|
| Soci-able
| Cooper-ative Empath-ic | Selfish Aggres-sive
| Reck-lessly Impul-sive | Domin-ant (Top Dog) | Confi-dent | Fearful | Anxious When Separated | Atten-tion Seek-ing | Playful
| Aloof Cold Distant | Suspic-ious |
| PPD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| + | + |
| SPD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| + |
|
| STPD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| + |
|
| HPD | + | + |
| + |
|
|
| + | + | excites |
|
|
| BPD | + |
| + | + |
|
|
| + | + | excites |
|
|
| NPD | + |
| + |
| + | + |
|
| + | bossy |
|
|
| ANPD | + |
| + | + | + | + |
|
|
| rough |
| + |
| APD |
|
|
|
|
|
| + |
|
|
|
|
|
| DPD | + | + |
|
|
|
| + | + |
| + |
|
|
| OCPD |
|
|
|
|
|
| + |
|
|
|
|
|
Legend:
PPD = Paranoid Personality Disorder
SPD = Schizoid Personality Disorder
STPD = Schizotypal Personality Disorder
HPD = Histrionic Personality Disorder
BPD = Borderline Personality Disoder
NPD = Narcissistic Personality Disoder
ANPD = Antisocial Personality Disorder
APD = Avoidant Personality Disorder
DPD = Dependent Personality Disorder
OCPD= Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Are Personality Disorders Due to "Nature" or "Nurture"?
All of the behaviors that define personality disorders are commonly seen in children, and most children grow out of these behaviors. Unfortunately, for people with personality disorders, these “immature” behaviors persist and intensify into adulthood. It appears that the normal process of maturation and socialization somehow is arrested in people with personality disorders as they grow older. We don’t know exactly why this happens.
In dogs, it is easier to do research on socialization. Research has shown that proper socialization of a dog (by leaving it as a pup with its mother, and rearing it with other dogs) will produce a well-adjusted dog that gets along well with other dogs. However, if the dog is to be domesticated to live with humans, there is a critical period for it to be adopted. If the dog is adopted too early, or too late, it never becomes domesticated.
Research on human socialization parallels that on dogs. Research has found that human socialization in childhood requires affectionate parenting with appropriate disciplining. Contact with other children to learn how to play and cooperate is also essential. Children that are deprived of these essentials are very likely to grow up to have personality disorders. However, there are other children who have the advantages of good parenting, and still grow up to have personality disorders. Research on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Autism suggest that some individuals are simply born with significant and persistent personality defects that persist despite having good parenting and a stress-free childhood. Many other examples can be given of congenital conditions that can lead to abnormal personality development. Alcoholism and drug addiction can arrest, or even reverse, psychological maturation and socialization. Thus addiction is a good example of how an environmental factor can cause a personality disorder.
Thus human socialization, like dog socialization, is part “nature” (inborn temperament) and part “nurture” (experience). Proper training can bring out the best in both dog and human behavior. Unfortunately, it appears that some maladjusted dog or human personalities are highly resistant to change.
Research in both dogs and humans has shown that previously well-socialized dogs or humans can lose their socialization under inhumane circumstances. Human history is full of examples of normal well-adjusted people losing their basic humanity during prolonged periods of deprivation or stress (e.g., World War II).
Summary
Personality disorders represent an arrest in the normal neurological process of maturation and socialization. Tragically, even when individuals with personality disorders are in their forties or fifties, they have the maturity of a teenager just starting to learn how to deal with life.
Personality disorders start in childhood, but the majority of children grow out of these immature behaviors. However, sometimes these immature behaviors persist into adulthood; hence are diagnosed as personality disorders when these behaviors significantly interfere with socialization.
Some personality disorders improve with age; whereas others don’t. There is very little good research on the long-term effectiveness of the treatment of personality disorders. Thus it is premature to say if personality disorders do or don’t respond to therapy. However, the current consensus in psychiatry is that all personality disorders require long-term psychotherapy.
Psychotropic medication has been shown to help specific problems in personality disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression, anger, impulsivity or suspiciousness). Otherwise, psychotropic medication usually does not play a central role in the treatment of personality disorders.
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