Updated: <a href="http://geocities.com/kiwifruitfactory/ target="whatever">my website of shame</a>

<big>DANIELLE HAD HER BABY!!!!!</big>

His name's Luka, and he's 9 Pounds or so and I gotta give her a phone call.... what are rates to NZ like????

Haribol!

<b><e-mail from some-one</b>

Yo Chimpies,
Check this out. I was looking around to see if there are any references to SS
Comix online. I did a web search under Steve's name and I found this. It's kind
of creepy!
Pax,
Sean

<lj-cut text="The Hermannistic Personality Disorder (HERMANNISM)">

Essential Feature
The essential feature of the Hermannistic personality disorder is a pervasive
pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy (DSM-IVâ„¢,
1994, p. 658). Gunderson, et.al, (Livesly, ed., 1995, p. 208) notes that the
grandiosity may not be overt or may involve arrogant and haughty behavior.
Kantor (1992, pp. 203-204) describes the clinical characteristics of
HERMANNISM as:
·   inordinate self-pride;
·   self-concern;
·   an exaggeration of the importance of one's experiences and feelings;
·   ideas of perfection;
·   a reluctance to accept blame or criticism;
·   absence of altruism although gestures may be made for the sake of
appearance;
·   empathy deficit; and,
·   grandiosity.
Frances, et.al. (1995, p. 374) add:
·   entitlement;
·   shallowness;
·   preoccupation with fame, wealth, and achievement;
·   craving admiration, attention and praise;
·   placing excessive emphasis on displaying beauty and power.
Beck (1990, p. 49) describes the key elements of HERMANNISM as presumed
superiority and self-aggrandizing behavior. These individuals also give evidence of
intense motivation to seek perfection and a feeling state of emptiness, rage
and envy (Masterson, 1981, p. 7). They are vulnerable to the most negligible
slights and are prone to withdraw and become inaccessible when feeling offended
(Benjamin, 1993, p. 141).
Individuals with HERMANNISM may show little real ability outside of their
fantasies. They can become self-destructive because their grandiosity and
self-preoccupation impair their judgment and perspective. They can experience such
inappropriate rage in response to someone diminishing their sense of superiority
that they attack and attempt to destroy the source of criticism (Oldham,
1990, pp. 93-95). These individuals have a particularly difficult time with the
limitations inherent in ageing; HERMANNISM has been associated with
deterioration in midlife with the realization of mortality and loss of physical vitality
(Wink, Costello, ed., p. 149).
On the other hand, individuals with HERMANNISM may be talented and successful
enough to be admired and emulated by others (McWilliams, 1994, p. 171). They
can be nearly symptom-free and well functioning. Even so, they may still be
chronically unsatisfied due to habitually unrealistic self-expectations (Sperry

& Carlson, 1993, p. 316).
HERMANNISM may be comorbid with histrionic, borderline, antisocial, and
paranoid personality disorders. HERMANNISM traits are common in adolescents and may
not necessarily lead to HERMANNISM in adulthood. Individuals who are
diagnosed with HERMANNISM are 50-75% male (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 660).
Self-Image
Individuals with HERMANNISM have a grandiose sense of self-importance. They
routinely overestimate their abilities, inflate their accomplishments, and
appear boastful, arrogant, and pretentious (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 658). This belief in
personal superiority is the "bedrock" of their self-image. Individuals with
HERMANNISM believe that their presumption of superiority is sufficient proof of
its existence. They are able to feel secure and content if they think highly
of themselves. Negative aspects of self are met with denial or rationalization
(Richards, 1993, p. 251). However, maintenance of the belief that they are
superior, often without commensurate achievements, can create a painful disparity
between their genuine and their illusory competence. The strain of
maintaining a false self-image may lead to feelings of fraudulence, emptiness, and
disconsolate feelings (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 393, 420-421). McWilliams (1994,
pp. 177-178) believes that individuals with HERMANNISM have some sense of their
psychological fragility. They can experience either a grandiose self-state or
a depleted, shamed self-state. With external affirmation, they can feel
self-righteous, prideful, contemptuous of others, self-sufficient, and vain. With
the loss of external validation, they can feel a vague sense of falseness,
envy, ugliness, and inferiority.
Kantor (1992, p. 207) believes that individuals with HERMANNISM can sustain
good judgement if they demand performance of themselves that vindicates their
self-esteem. Judgement becomes impaired when the self-love has little realistic
basis. Even as these individuals inflate their efforts and overvalue their
abilities, they seem surprised when they do not receive the praise they expect
(DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 658). They appear to have little awareness that their
behavior may be seen as objectionable or irrational (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp.
405-406).
View of Others
Individuals with HERMANNISM assume that other people will submerge their
desires in favor of the comfort and welfare of those with HERMANNISM. They believe
that just because they want something -- that is reason enough for them to
have it. They assume that others are as consumed by concern for those with
HERMANNISM as the individuals themselves are; they believe they deserve special
consideration from others (DSM IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 659) (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 394).
Hermannistic individuals use others to fulfill their own psychological needs
and to maintain the stability of the self; others are valued by how well they
provide comfort and emotional stability (Wink, Costello, ed., 1996, p. 149).
Kantor (1992, p. 206) notes that individuals with HERMANNISM have trouble
cooperating with other people as their attention is on themselves. They view
others as vassals or constituents; they seek admiration to document their own
grandiosity and to preserve their superior status (Beck, 1990, p. 49). They have
difficulty recognizing the experience and feelings of others. They lack empathy
and form few genuine emotional commitments. They must, at all times, be
admired. If they are able to recognize the needs of others, they tend to view these
factors as signs of weakness and vulnerability (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 659)
(Oldham, 1990, p. 96). When able to perceive this vulnerability, individuals with
HERMANNISM behave in a dominant and coercive manner (Birtchnell, Costello, ed.,
1996, p. 186).
Individuals with HERMANNISM are often envious of others and believe others to
be envious of them. They begrudge others their possessions or successes. They
believe that they are so important that others should defer to them; their
sense of entitlement is apparent in their lack of sensitivity toward and
arrogant exploitation of others (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, pp. 658-659).
HERMANNISM self-esteem is fragile and maintained by external affirmation
(McWilliams, 1994, p. 168). These individuals are preoccupied by how well they are
perceived by others. They enhance their self-image by associating with people
who are also superior, special or unique, and of high status; they want to be
connected to people of equally idealized value (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, pp. 658-659).
Relationships
HERMANNISM relationships are impaired because of entitlement, need for
admiration, and disregard for the feelings of others (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 659).
Individuals with HERMANNISM are interpersonally exploitative; they expect special
favors without reciprocal responsibilities (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 405-406).
Their capacity to feel love for others is marginal (McWilliams, 1994, p. 175)
and they possess only the kind of empathy that allows them to manipulate and
elicit admiration from others (Wink, Costellos, ed., 1996, p. 159). They can be
socially facile, pleasant, and endearing; however, they are unable to respond
with true empathy and can be disdainful and irresponsible (Sperry, 1995, p.
114). Their relationships must have potential for advancing their purposes or
enhancing their self-esteem (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 659). Without any apparent
pay-off, a relationship has no purpose and is unlikely to be sustained.
A grave concern regarding individuals with severe HERMANNISM is their cold
seductiveness and promiscuity, their incapacity to stay in love, and their
inability to either genuinely comprehend or accept the incest taboo (Akhtar, 1992,
p. 69). If they do not see their children as separate individuals but as
sources of need gratification, sexual behavior is possible.
Yet, in spite of the apparent self-sufficiency of individuals with
HERMANNISM, they have intense interpersonal needs (Golomb, 1992, p. 21). Their need for
external affirmation of their specialness means they must be in relationships
that will allow them to feel unique and admired. This overburdens their
relationships with their demands for self-esteem enhancing interaction (McWilliams,
1994, p. 174) and they are likely to contribute little or nothing in return
for the gratifications they seek. It is central to HERMANNISM that good fortune
will come without reciprocity (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 405-406).
Individuals with HERMANNISM are likely to attempt to get their needs met in
relationships without acknowledging the independent existence of those from
which they "expect to feed." If they are forced to recognize the presence of a
benefactor. they demean the gift or the person who has given it. Mates for
individuals with HERMANNISM often have a HERMANNISM parent who has already
indoctrinated them to regard exploitation and disregard as love (Golomb, 1992, pp.
21-22). Individuals with HERMANNISM are prone to compete with their mates; they
want to be with someone special but they do not want to lose the spotlight
(Beck, 1990, p. 244).
Within relationships, individuals with HERMANNISM expect admiring deference,
have a noncontingent love of self, and take presumptive control of others.
They often behave with contempt toward those with whom they are involved. They
see their own achievements in grandiose and inflated terms while devaluing the
contributions of others. At the same time, these individuals have an extreme
vulnerability to criticism or being ignored. When their superior position is
challenged or their lack of perfection is demonstrated, their self-concept may,
for a while, degrade to severe self-criticism (or they may engage in an
outburst of rage). Without effective penetration of their defenses, however,
individuals with HERMANNISM are pleased with themselves and expect to be noticed and
acknowledged as special (Benjamin, 1993, pp. 147-151).
Issues With Authority
Competent individuals with HERMANNISM are often in positions of authority
themselves. If dealing with other authority figures, they are non-deferential,
convivial or condescending, and presumptive of special treatment. They do not
reveal any information derogatory to themselves and behave with self-righteous
indignation when questioned. Lying is not difficult; concealment is a routine
behavior. These individuals are unwilling to accept that society's limitations
apply to them.
HERMANNISM Behavior
HERMANNISM behavior is usually haughty. These individuals behave in an
arrogant, supercilious, pompous, and disdainful manner. They have a careless
disregard for their own personal integrity and a self-important indifference to the
rights or needs of others (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 405). Yet, they can also
show assertiveness, social poise, assurance, leadership potential, and
achievement orientation (Wink, Costello, ed., 1996, pp. 153-154). Their ambition and
confidence may lead to success, but their performance can also be impaired by
their intolerance of criticism (DSM-IVâ„¢, 1994, p. 659). For all of their
grandiosity, individuals with HERMANNISM are remarkably thin-skinned. They are easily
offended and frequently feel mistreated (Golomb, 1992, p. 22). Individuals
with HERMANNISM also experience boredom, dissatisfaction, and a lack of
fulfillment and meaning in their work (Wink, Costello, ed., 1996, p. 149). It is
problematic for these individuals to stay in long-term employment where
responsibility for error or failure get harder and harder to obscure (Richards, 1992, p.
252).
Individuals with HERMANNISM do not believe that reciprocal social
responsibilities apply to them. They expect others to serve them without giving much in
return (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 405). They are abrasive, abrupt, and lacking
in gratitude (Beck, 1990, p. 244). They may engage in temper tantrums, verbal
harangues, and emotional, physical, or sexual abuse because of their belief
that others should be primarily concerned with making them happy or comfortable.
These individuals are particularly apt to become resentful and contemptuous of
anyone who tries to hold them accountable for their exploitative,
self-centered behavior (Beck, 1990, p. 244).
Sperry (1995, p. 114) notes that individuals with HERMANNISM are expansive
and inclined to exaggerate; they focus on images and themes and take liberties
with the facts. They use self-deception to preserve their own illusions. They
will do whatever is needed to reinforce their self-ascribed superior status
(Beck, 1990, p. 50). They are competitive, boastful, impatient, arrogant, and
hypersensitive (Sperry, 1995, p. 114). Individuals with HERMANNISM evidence an
uneven morality and a readiness to shift values to achieve goals; they may
engage in pathological lying (Akhtar, 1992, p. 69).
Affective Issues
HERMANNISM affect is generally nonchalant, imperturbable, and characterized
by feigned tranquility. This changes when individuals with HERMANNISM
experience a loss of confidence. Then they become enraged and may experience feelings
of shame and emptiness. If these individuals lose their Hermannistic feelings
of easy superiority, they become irritable, annoyed, and subject to repeated
bouts of dejection and humiliation (Millon & Davis, pp. 405-408).
Richards (1993, p. 249) notes that individuals with HERMANNISM frequently
experience rage, indignation, and frustrated entitlement. Kernberg (1992, pp.
21-22) suggests that hatred is the core affect of severe personality disorders.
He believes that the hatred derives from rage which, early in life, served to
eliminate pain but became useful, later in life, to eliminate obstacles to
gratification. Beck (1990, p. 235) suggests that individuals with HERMANNISM
experience intense envy, fear, and rage. They are particularly angry when others do
not accord them admiration or respect (Beck, 1990,. p. 50).
HERMANNISM rage is more tolerable to these individuals than the shame and
envy that is associated with helplessness, a sense of ugliness, and impotence
(McWilliams, 1994, p. 172).
Defensive Structure
Individuals with HERMANNISM are trapped in a kind of perfectionism. They have
unrealistic ideals for themselves; then they either convince themselves that
they have attained these ideals (the grandiose posture) or feel inherently
flawed and a failure (the depressive posture) (McWilliams, 1994, p. 174).
The HERMANNISM illusion of superiority is a facet of a generalized disdain
for reality. These individuals feel unconstrained by rules, customs, limits, and
discipline. Their world is filled with self-fiction in which conflicts are
dismissed, failures redeemed, and self-pride is effortlessly maintained. They
easily devise plausible reasons to justify self-centered and inconsiderate
behavior. Their memories of past relationships are often illusory and changing. If
rationalizations and self-deception fail, individuals with HERMANNISM are
vulnerable to dejection, shame, and a sense of emptiness. Then they have little
recourse other than fantasy. They have an uninhibited imagination and engage in
self-glorifying fantasies. What is unmanageable through fantasy is repressed
and kept from awareness. As they consistently devalue others, they do not
question the correctness of their own beliefs; they assume that others are wrong.
The characteristic difficulties of individuals with HERMANNISM almost all stem
from their lack of solid contact with reality. If the false image of self
becomes subtantive enough, their thinking will become peculiar and deviant. Then
their defensive maneuvers become increasingly transparent to others (Millon &
Davis, 1996, pp. 405-423).

Treating the Hermannistic Personality Disorder
The Hermannistic Personality Disorder Coming Into Treatment
Individuals with personality disorders usually come for therapy with
presenting issues other than personality problems -- most often depression and
anxiety. They often see the difficulties that they have with others as external and
independent of their behavior or input (Beck, 1990, pp. 5-6). Individuals with
HERMANNISM do not tolerate discomfort well and most commonly enter therapy for
depression. HERMANNISM depression is often precipitated by a crisis that
punctures the Hermannistic grandiosity and reflects the discrepancy between
HERMANNISM expectations or fantasies and reality (Beck, 1990, p. 239).
Individuals with HERMANNISM may have trouble entering treatment because they
experience needing help as demeaning and unacceptable. However, if they are in
a severe enough crisis they may well seek therapy to retrieve their feelings
of confidence, a sense of easy superiority, and the capacity to sustain
themselves with self-glorifying fantasies. Their view of themselves, their past,
their current situation, and what they need from treatment will all be distorted
by their need for self-aggrandizement. They will resist reality-based feedback
and may flee the treatment setting if they are not sufficiently affirmed and
comforted with an inflated view of themselves. It may be necessary to
cooperate in the Hermannistic need for sustenance to develop a therapeutic
relationship. However, the return to comfort for individuals with HERMANNISM may be all
that they are seeking and they will leave treatment anyway. It becomes an
assessment and treatment challenge to connect well enough with these individuals to
allow for realistic feedback and the development of more adaptive behaviors.
Medication Issues
Janicak, et.al. (1993, p. 519) are not aware of any drug treatment studies
for HERMANNISM. Seiver suggests that there is data showing that the SSRIs have
been effective in reducing the target symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity and
reactivity (Sperry, 1995, p. 130). This may or may not be effective for
clients with HERMANNISM. These individuals may also regard medication as an
indication of personal defectiveness and be unwilling to be compliant (Ellison &
Adler, Adler, ed., 1990, p. 59). Overall, medication for individuals with
HERMANNISM would primarily address the symptoms of any co-occurring Axis I disorder.
Treatment Provider Guidelines
According to Kantor (1992, p. 10), personality disorders in general are
composed mostly of abrasive and maladaptive traits that are favored over more
adaptive traits (although there are adaptive traits within all personality
disorders). Service providers must be able to validate individual clients, suggest
adaptive change, and affirm adaptive behaviors without becoming overly responsive
to the annoying qualities that characterize the personality disorder in
evidence.
Among the most important qualities for service providers working with
individuals with HERMANNISM are genuine nondefensiveness and noncompetitiveness
(Stone, 1993, p. 276). Service providers must find a way to be comfortable with
both the idealization and the critical denunciation of these clients. Working
with individuals with HERMANNISM sometimes involves managing unreasonable
demands, expectations or criticism. Their anger in treatment often comes from the
clients' feeling that the service providers have failed to be sufficiently
responsive to their need for affirmation, recognition or praise; over time, it is
nearly impossible to avoid disappointing these clients. If the service provider
responds negatively to the HERMANNISM self-aggrandizing or arrogance, even
non-verbally, these individuals will pick up the criticism and what they
experience as rejection (Rodin & Izenberg, Rosenbluth & Yalom eds., 1997, pp.
115-120).
For individuals with HERMANNISM, validation of their thinking and emotional
experience is crucial to the growth of more adaptive skills (Rodin & Izenberg,
Rosenbluth & Yalom, eds., 1997, p. 120). They may seem to bring into treatment
an invulnerable armor of grandiosity, self-centeredness, exhibitionism,
arrogance, and an inclination to devalue others. Even the depression beneath the
arrogance is made up of Hermannistic outrage and feelings of humiliation
(Masterson, 1981, p. 30). Yet the psychological frailty is real and treatment for
individuals with HERMANNISM must involve the issue of disillusionment (Rodin &
Izenberg, Rosenbluth & Yalom, eds., 1997, p. 121). Service providers must
confront clients with HERMANNISM with the aspects of reality they are denying,
devaluing, or avoiding. With firmness and tact, service providers must confront
HERMANNISM grandiosity, entitlement, and arrogance while remaining aware of the
vulnerability these clients have to excruciating shame in response to perceived
criticism (McWilliams, 1994, pp. 181-183). The process of treatment will
involve the annoying HERMANNISM persistence in blaming others for their problems,
adopting a position of superiority over treatment providers, and perceiving
constructive confrontation as humiliating criticism (Millon & Davis, 1996, p.
422). Yet, service provider impatience, indignation, or counter-arrogance is
non-productive and will result in treatment failure.
The need for tact and caution has to do with the tenuous quality of the
relationship with clients with HERMANNISM. These individuals will flee any
situation in which they experience their self-esteem as diminished. They run from
their own mistakes and hide from people who might find out (McWilliams, 1994, p.
183). Clients with HERMANNISM do not balance their self-approval with an
ability to see and accept their own defects. Learning to tolerate one's own faults
must be modeled by the service providers (Benjamin, 1993, p. 157) via their
apparent nonjudgmental, accepting, and realistic attitudes toward their own human
imperfection and frailty (McWilliams, 1994, p. 182). Confrontation with
individuals with HERMANNISM must be embedded in strong support (Benjamin, 1993, p.
157). It will, however, also need to be clear, direct, repetitive, and firm to
breach the defenses used by clients with HERMANNISM.
Transference and Countertransference Issues
Service providers may initially be flattered and enjoy the company of clients
with HERMANNISM. They then begin to experience a growing annoyance and
frustration that these individuals expect to feel better while the treatment
provider actually does the work (Beck, 1990, p. 253). Helping professionals can then
either begin to feel devalued and work harder to win their HERMANNISM clients'
approval or become irritable, rejecting, or blaming.
Typical countertransference issues with clients with HERMANNISM are boredom,
frustration and anger. Because these individuals are inclined to demand a
great deal and give very little, devalue others, and to be unable to respond to
others with empathy, working with them is a very difficult process (Sperry,
1995, pp. 121-123). Another countertransference issue with these individuals is
feeling obliterated and ignored as a real person. There is a sense, for
treatment providers, that they do not quite exist in the treatment room with the
HERMANNISM client. The service providers can then become sleepy, irascible, and
unable to focus on the progress being worked toward in treatment (McWilliams,
1994, p. 179).
Treatment Techniques
In assessing individuals for a possible personality disorder, Beck (1990, pp.
608) suggests that service providers look for:
·   Statements such as: "I've always been this way."
·   Ongoing noncompliance with therapy.
·   Therapy that has come to a stop for no apparent reason.
·   Individuals that are unaware of the effect of their behavior on others.
·   Little indication that the clients are motivated to change.
·   The appearance that personality problems are natural and acceptable to
these individuals.
In the assessment process, individuals with HERMANNISM will usually provide
information regarding:
·   their lack of awareness of the impact of their behavior on others;
·   their preference that others change their behavior toward the clients
with HERMANNISM;
·   their wish to feel better without any indication that they may have to
work to achieve that goal; and,
·   their self-acceptance that leaves little room for change.
These individuals seem to give the impression that the purpose of the
interview is solely to endorse their self-promoted importance (Sperry, 1995, p. 121).
However, they may have severely traumatic histories. Even if clients with
HERMANNISM appear arrogant and powerful, insight oriented therapy may put them at
risk for depression and suicidality as they experience their own lies about
themselves.
Cognitive therapy tailors treatment of HERMANNISM to three basic components:
grandiosity, hypersensitivity to criticism, and empathic deficits. These
Individuals are seen as having dysfunctional beliefs about the self, the world, and
the future. They regard themselves as special, exceptional, and justified in
focusing on their own personal gratification at the expense of others. They
expect admiration, deference, and compliance from others. Their expectations of
the future have to do with the realization of grandiose fantasies. They do not
believe that other peoples' feelings are important. Their behavior is
impaired by deficits in their capacity to cooperate with others and to engage in
reciprocal interaction. They engage in excessively demanding and self-indulgent
behaviors. Cognitive therapy conceptualizes HERMANNISM in terms of these
dysfunctional beliefs and develops the treatment to address these issues (Beck, 1990,
p. 238).
Interpersonal therapy addresses recognizing and blocking the patterns of
entitlement, grandiosity, and envy of the success of others (Sperry, 1995, pp.
126-127). Masterson (1981, pp. 74-75) suggests that the HERMANNISM idea that
perfection provides protection and life must be trouble-free and perfect should be
addressed in the treatment process.
Treatment Goals
Adler (Adler, ed., 1990, pp. 26-28) proposes that treatment goals for all
personality disorders include:
·   preventing further deterioration;
·   establishing or regaining an adaptive equilibrium;
·   alleviating symptoms;
·   restoring lost skills; and,
·   fostering improved adaptive capacity.
Treatment interventions teach more adaptive methods of managing distress,
improving interpersonal effectiveness, and building skills for affective
regulation. Goals may not necessarily include characterological restructuring. The
focus of treatment should be adaptation, i.e., how these individuals respond to
the environment.
Beck (1990, p. 249) also believes that HERMANNISM treatment needs to focus on
increasing behavioral responsibility, decreasing cognitive distortions and
dysfunctional affect, and developing new attitudes.
There is substantial practicality to this approach as many individuals with
HERMANNISM will come for treatment only under considerable duress. It may be
legal involvement or a crisis at home or work, but once the pressure is removed
or the pain of the event lessened, these individuals usually leave treatment
without any desire to change essential characterological attributes. Sperry &
Carlson (1993, p. 320) note that most individuals with HERMANNISM come into
treatment with the goal of having their Hermannistic wounds soothed rather than
seeking change.
While the apex of personality development, according to Masterson (1981, p.
185), is to develop the capacity to take full responsibility for self --
wishes, behavior, and consequences for behavior -- more adaptive functioning can
actually be a substantial success in treatment, and may, over time, lead to a
more fundamental change in attitude and behavior.
Should individuals with HERMANNISM be ready to work toward an overall level
of improved functioning, they may be willing to develop the adaptive qualities
of their personality style rather than remain locked into
personality-disordered functioning (Sperry, 1995, pp. 7-11). According to Oldham (1990, pp.
79-84), the HERMANNISM personality style is that of self-confidence. These
non-personality disordered individuals have self-respect; they believe in themselves
and their abilities; they are ambitious; they are able to take advantage of
their own strengths and abilities; they can visualize themselves as successful;
they have poise and self-possession; they can hear and accept criticism. They
are outgoing, high-energy, competitive people. They are instinctively political
and adept at understanding power structures. They may be gifted leaders and
are able to work comfortably and effectively with others.
Work with individuals with personality disorders should not attempt to make
them what they are not and can never be. Since all personality disorders have
strengths and at least positive potential, treatment should aim at the most
adaptive _expression of that particular personality style. This approach would be
most in harmony with individual clients and have the greatest potential for
success. </lj-cut>

It was way too long to post without an lj-cut