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“SICK PERSONALITY:OVERCOME”
BY:
Prof. Ashok K. Sinha
Sick personalities are those in which there is a breakdown in the personality structure that results in poor personal and social adjustments. Such personalities are usually labeled “disturbed” by the scientist and “peculiar” or “crazy” by the layman. A so-called “normal personality” is not necessarily a healthy personality. Only when the person’s behavior conforms to social expectations and, in so doing, provides him with satisfaction can it be called “healthy” Although “normal” and “abnormal” are used by layman to describe the person’s satisfaction with his behavior. The labels “healthy” and “sick” are more accurate.
There is evidence that personality sickness is more widespread today than in the past. This may be because it is better recognize than formerly, because there are more records available of poorly adjusted people, or because the stresses and constant changes of modern life predispose people to personality sickness. While personality sickness can occur at any age, the most velnerable times are when there are marked physical changes or when the person is expected to play radically different roles from which he/she formerly played.
Personality sickness may come from a physical condition, either granular or neurological, that upset body homeostasis, but it generally comes from a psychological condition marked by anxiety, which leads to self-rejection. Self rejection comes from much cause. The most common are.
(a) Unrealistic aspirations.
(b) Environmental obstacles that keep the person from doing what he want’s and is able to do so.
(c) Unfavorable social attitudes.
(d) Personal limitations of either a physical or psychological nature.
(e) Severe and prolonged emotional strain.
(f) Repeated failures.
(g) Identification with maladjusted people.
(h) Lack of perspective, which results in the person’s exaggeration of his weaknesses.
(i) Poor child training especially when strictly authoritarian or overly permissive.
(j) And lack of motivation to be self-acceptant when the person falls below his own expectations.
Personality sickness may take any one of the number of common forms. These are usually divided into two major categories; first, which consists of behavior patterns that are socially acceptable but not satisfying to the person. As is true of physical sickness, personality sickness is preceded by signals which alert the person and those which whom he is associated that he is not in a healthy state. The value of those danger signals of personality sickness varies with the age and the sex of the person, though at any age and for members of either sex, they symbolize the fact that an unhealthy psychological state exists.
The most common of the danger signals of all ages and both sexes are:-
(a) Immaturity of behavior attitudes.
(b) Regression to earlier patterns of adjustment which the person found more to his liking.
(c) Cruelty.
(d) Antisocial behavior.
(e) Showing off.
(f) Under the over conformity.
(g) Threats of or attempts to commit suicide.
Predictable variations in personality sickness are influenced by age, sex, socioeconomic status, family size, popularity and the kind of personality sickness. Knowing these variations must be possible sickness may develop for a given individual.
Personality sickness is a matter of grave concern for many reasons:-
(a) Such sickness tends to become progressively worse unless it is diagnosed and treated by a competent person before it becomes pronounced.
(b) It tends to spread through conditioning and becomes general rather than specific.
(c) It leads to social rejection or it exaggerates already existing social rejections.
(d) And it leads to happiness not in the person who is psychologically sick but in all with whom he is closely associated.
Because of the seriousness of the personality sickness, an aggressive attack on it is essential. Such an attack involves:-
(a) Diagnosing the cause of sickness.
(b) Reporting the findings of the diagnosis to the person to alert him about the cause and nature of the trouble and prescribing improvement measures. Psychological sickness normally develops fairly slowly, thus allowing time to cope with it, provided it is recognized early and provided remedial steps are taken before it becomes established.
AIDS TO ACHIEVING A HEALTHY PERSONALITY
Since a healthy personality is not a part of the person’s hereditary endowment but is developed through learning and life experiences, almost everyone can have a healthy personality. Thus, it is something the person must acquire for himself. To do so requires motivation and know-how.
No one wants to be mentally sick. However, there is still some social stigma attached to mental illness. Furthermore, life is more enjoyable and people are happier when they are physically and mentally healthy personality. There are few things people dread more than the prospects of being institutionalized, whether for physical or mental illness. Consequently, motivation to have a healthy personality is rarely a problem.
It is almost universally accepted that the key to good mental health is self-acceptance, while the chief cause of personality sickness is self-rejection. Therefore, it is obvious that the fundamental task is to help people learn how to be self-acceptant. Many suggestions about how to do this have been made, but because of the newness of the research in this area, no one has yet brought all these scattered information together.