Functions of Personality – 2013 class
Wow, as I organize it, I see we talked a lot about emotional awareness. I think that came from the
Borderline case. We talked about other functions in the other cases, but I didn’t write them up here.
I’ve included some from the 2011 class at the bottom because they’re similar to yours.
If you view the document in outline view it may make more sense
awareness of own emotions
Problem: she doesn’t realize how upset she is – it comes out of nowhere
Skill: give her awareness of her own emotions on an on-going basis
Problem: She has emotion and doesn’t know reason – is looking for reason
Problem: I know I’m being irrational but cannot stop – Scrat on Ice Age
Skill: restraint and calming to change
Management/filtering… impulse and impose control
Skill: emotional regulation- calm down one’s anger –
She calms down own anger
Problem: ineffective anger
Skill: effective anger
Understand motivations for emotions
Use them in a constructive way
History of good outcome (trust the process), understand other (get problem out), resolve issues
(maybe_)
awareness of other’s emotions - in general
awareness of other’s emotions - people you’ve been in relationship with
Problem: He doesn’t know why she’s angry
Problem: he is with someone with specific struggles and doesn’t respond well,
he gets defensive
Awareness of others / perspective – general ability for all others
Realize your issues/quirks/disorders – I need to remember, realize, and be helpful and
supportive
Continuous sense of self
Problem: she ties past to present … (NEED TO DO MORE HERE)
Doesn’t know when and how to apply past to present. Overapplies it.
Spring 2011
This is the list of personality functions, or what a personality needs to do, that came from our
discussions of personality disorders and the structure of the book.
Personality is usually not the piece, it’s how we process it, how manage or regulate it.
Self
Emotions – how do we come to know what we’re feeling
Thinking – what habits and processes do we have for watching our thinking?
Impulse – how do we recognize and respond to impulses?
Relate - How do we relate and manage the three – emotions, thoughts and impulses
Body - How do we notice and respond to needs and info from our body?
Relationships with Other People
Energy – how much do we let other’s energy affect us? Whose energy?
Entirely – Dependent PD, Not at all – Schizoid PD
Whose part? Whose responsibility? Whose fault?
Always their fault – narcissist, sociopath
Always mine? Dependent, avoidant
Structure – How do we create structure for ourselves and the world we interact with? How do we
respond ot change? (We are not the chaos or structure of the world, our personality is how to respond
to it.)
Create ours, can’t handle change – OCPD
Control – how much do we need to control others? Are we willing to be directed by others?
always in control (see world as dog-eat-dog) - APD/Sociopath
Input, feedback, judgment and influence: How do we take input, feedback, judgment and influence
from the outside world?
All the time, everyone’s – Avoidant PD