Hysterical personality type: causes, main features, behavioral characteristics

I invite you to begin considering a series of articles on personality typologies based on the research materials of Nancy McWilliams. These articles will be of interest primarily to those who plan to start working with a psychologist to solve their questions and problems. And also for those who are interested in personality psychology.

Research psychologists note that a hysterical (theatrical) character is more often observed in women, but also occurs in men.

Personality disorders

To fully understand the essence of the hysterical type, you need to start from the very beginning, namely, with the definition of the concept of “personality”. What it is? Personality is a pattern of behavior, thoughts and emotions, unique qualities that are inherent in a particular person. It is personality that is formed as a result of a long process of human development and socialization, and it is personality that helps build relationships with other people and determines human destiny. But sometimes personality is not formed correctly, and as a result, a person develops deeply ingrained and unhealthy ways of thinking that lead to deterioration in relationships with other people.

Recently, personality disorder had a completely different name. The causes of “constitutional psychopathy” were considered to be incurable neurological pathologies. However, personality disorders are so diverse that doctors have changed their point of view and came to the conclusion that the cause can be both a genetic predisposition and unfavorable conditions in childhood, as well as stressful situations. There are 10 disorders in total, but they are largely similar to each other:

Cluster A includes eccentric disorders, including schizoid and paranoid.
Cluster B includes dramatic and disordered disorders, including narcissistic and borderline personality disorder.
Cluster C includes anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive and addictive disorders.

The first signs of the disorder appear only in adolescence or adulthood. Many people know how a hysterical woman behaves, but not everyone knows that in some cases this is not a whim, but an illness. What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

What is a hysterical personality type?

Hysterical disorder is also called dramatic or theatrical disorder, since patients with this problem tend to be overly dramatic, theatrical, and exaggerate their feelings. The behavior style of people with this personality disorder is far from normal: they want to be the center of attention in a group of other people and are willing to do anything to achieve what they want. Naturally, people with personality disorders are poorly socialized, they rarely have personal relationships, and all their friends and family eventually turn away from them due to inappropriate behavior. Often, patients with hysterical personality disorder repress problems and “escap” into illness, demonstrating real and imaginary symptoms.

Often such people can be very interesting and lively; they reach particular heights in narrow circles - for example, in a theatrical environment in which such behavior is acceptable. But in personal relationships and with emotional intimacy, they may experience difficulties. They often seek to manipulate their partners and play a certain role (for example, “victim” or “princess”). Also, people with hysterical types often display sexually seductive or provocative behavior to attract attention to themselves.

Recommendations

If your child is a representative of this type of character accentuation, try to give him recognition as often as possible. Show that you are interested in his opinion, personality and are ready to accept him for who he is. This will save your nerves, since in this case his need for attention will be satisfied. This means that he will not commit rash and risky actions, because there will be no need for them.
When communicating with a hysterical person, avoid situations where the flattery is too obvious; do not give him unreasonable recognition. A lie can offend him, so try to focus on truly existing positive qualities and skills.
Remain calm during interactions, especially with a teenager. Otherwise, you will provoke him into impulsive and dangerous actions that he will commit in order to achieve your repentance for the injustice shown and the harshness of treatment.

Causes of the disorder

The hysterical personality type manifests itself in the same way in men and women. However, researchers have not yet determined what exactly causes it. Most professionals believe that the causes are related to various biological, social and genetic factors:

Heredity and chronic diseases, including mental ones.
Early childhood interactions with family and others.
Level of stress in childhood and ability to cope with it.
Personal temperament.
Traumatic events.

No single factor can become the sole cause of the development of a hysterical state. Most likely, this disorder occurs due to a combination of several conditions.

Increasing desire to be noticed

A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of internal experience and behavior that differs from the norms and culture of others. This, as a rule, leads to significant problems in all areas of a person’s life: work, personal, etc. The pattern of behavior is quite stable and can be traced throughout life.

Onset usually occurs in adolescence or adulthood. A close relationship with a patient can become a real hell for the other person. A person with a hysterical personality type requires constant attention to himself, but cannot do routine things and wants to get immediate results in all areas of life. As a result, he constantly manipulates, gets offended, quarrels and emotionally affects his partner or loved ones in any way possible. But there is no need to assume that he himself enjoys it - he simply cannot live any other way.

Hysterical attacks are frequent accompaniments of personality disorder. They allow you not only to attract attention, but also to throw out accumulated tension.

How to optimize the life of a hyperthymic person

One very simple psychological technique can help a person with a hyperthymic personality type see his behavior from the outside and work on mistakes. The essence of the technique is that you need to keep a notebook where you should write down close and distant plans, and then, after reading what you have written, cross out exactly half. That is, to plan less, but to carry it out “iron”, than to conceive a lot, knowing that it is simply impossible to implement everything at once. Hyperthym can come up with a “punishment” for himself for not keeping a promise or not finishing a job he started. In this way, a person accustoms himself to fixing and controlling his own indiscipline.

The hyperthymus needs to be reminded more often to restore order in the space around it. If everything around him is structured and in its place, then order in his soul will come sooner.

Symptoms

It is quite difficult for a non-specialist to distinguish pathological deviations from character traits or temperament. In order to suspect mental abnormalities, close contact and psychological education are needed. Since in most cases people with personality disorders do not have close, trusting relationships, they rarely receive help from professionals. In the meantime, the sooner the cause of a person’s strange behavior is determined, the more help can be provided to him.

Here are the main symptoms of a personality disorder that may indicate pathological changes:

The patient dresses provocatively and behaves deliberately sexually. Sometimes this can interfere not only with love relationships, but also with friendships, since a person can address deliberate sexuality to everyone indiscriminately.
People with histrionic disorder tend to spend an excessive amount of time focusing on their appearance. Sometimes they have a completely unrealistic and detached image of themselves, as a result of which, for example, they may constantly undergo plastic surgery or dress strangely, thus deliberately attracting attention to themselves.
A person has a desire to be the main object of attention. Such people want there to be no other interesting personalities in the lives of other people besides them. They know that if they get attention, they can get what they want.
These people are easily influenced. When dealing with a personality disorder, this factor can become a significant problem. Any person who appears in the patient’s field of attention can have an impact on him, and it is not always positive.
They feel discomfort when there is insufficient attention.
They exhibit impulsiveness, commit spontaneous actions that cannot always be logically justified, exhibit emotional instability, and throw tantrums for no reason.
The behavior of such a person is often unnatural, his voice is loud, and his movements are abrupt.
There is causeless aggression. Aggression in psychology is something that contradicts generally accepted norms.

Personality disorders can vary in severity, so the intensity of symptoms can also vary.

How to communicate with hysterics

Despite the fact that these individuals are eccentric and have excessively high demands, it is still possible to find a common language - this will avoid quarrels, scandals, conflicts and other troubles.

If a person really likes interacting with a hysterical person and wants to maintain friendly relations, he should give them what they urgently need: regularly encourage them, give compliments, show admiration and tolerate eccentric behavior. It is strongly recommended not to argue if the relationship is truly dear. Convincing women and men with such mental characteristics is an almost impossible task.

If you need to resolve work issues with a hysterical person, you should not entrust him with tasks that require concentration and perseverance. The ideal option would be to provide a presentation of the project - he will clearly cope with this very well.

Relatives who want to “correct” the character of a family member with a hysterical psychotype can turn to qualified psychologists who will develop a therapeutic course and take all measures to reduce the manifestation of the main signs that irritate the most.

Hysterical type of personality accentuation (hysteroid)

Diagnostics

Personality disorders should only be diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional. This can be either a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Therapists and general practitioners, as a rule, do not have sufficient knowledge to distinguish a normal hysterical attack from a mental illness. If you want to get free help, you can first contact your general practitioner and then get a referral from him to see a specialist. There are currently no genetic or laboratory tests that can be used to diagnose the disease.

Many people with mental disorders do not seek treatment on their own and avoid it at all costs. Only when changes in the psyche begin to seriously interfere with a person’s life can he consult a doctor. But often by this time the patient’s resources are already so depleted that he cannot cope with stress and life’s troubles on his own.

The diagnosis of a mental disorder is made by a specialist after he has studied the medical history and compared the symptoms with the classic picture of the disease. There are also special tests that determine the presence of hysterical personality disorder in children and adults. They allow you to clarify the situation a little and more accurately establish a diagnosis. But mental tests cannot be the sole or primary basis for diagnosis.

Hysterical psychopathy and its types according to A.E. Lichko

Most often, the hobbies of hysterical individuals are associated with activities aimed at gaining the attention of others. This could be cinema, dancing, vocal styles.

Often among us you can see people who are not just strange, but very different from others. Not for the better, to put it mildly. In them, the emotional component of their character sharply dominates over the rational one.

Certain character traits appear exaggerated. Their personal balance is extremely unstable. Common everyday stimuli cause inappropriate reactions. Such mental qualities appear from early childhood.

Psychopathy is characterized by the inability to limit the manifestations of character by conscience, fear or reason. In a medical and legal sense, such people are healthy, but at the same time infinitely strange and incomprehensible.

People with hysteroidal psychopathy have the same symptoms that were described with hysteroidal accentuation. The symptoms are similar. But the fundamental difference is that accentuation does not always appear and does not appear everywhere.

It only manifests itself either during periods of crisis, for example, in adolescence, or under the influence of special situations - after or during mental trauma, life problems. And hysterical psychopathy will continue throughout life.

Lesions occur due to intoxication during pregnancy, intrauterine trauma. An important role is played by severe infectious diseases, various complications and injuries during childbirth, fetal asphyxia, traumatic brain injuries of the child, brain infections and other pathogenic influences.

The clinical picture of organic psychopathy is described in quite detail in children and adolescents. Hysterical psychopathy occurs more often in girls. It manifests itself very clearly in affective reactions - screaming, crying, hysterics.

All this is purely demonstrative. Violent fantasizing and lying are ubiquitous for the hysterical psychopathic personality. But even when those around him find out the truth, the hysteroid does not have the slightest embarrassment about this.

To diagnose hysterical personality disorder, the most detailed history is collected, starting from the period of the mother’s pregnancy, the way the child is raised, his living conditions are taken into account, his abilities for social adaptation, and his ability to act in conflict situations with relatives, friends, and strangers are examined.

Hysterical personality disorder and its symptoms are characterized primarily by totality, stability and severity to such an extent that they interfere with successful social adaptation (O.V. Kerbikov).

One of the most valuable sources of information about the patient will be a confidential conversation. The more the patient trusts his doctor or at least strives for revelation, the better. But in this case, the situation is aggravated by the craving for lies and fantasy.

The doctor has to be especially careful to monitor such manifestations. Therefore, hysterical personality disorder is one of the most difficult personality disorders for choosing psychotherapy and medical and pedagogical recommendations.

In search of the origins of personality disorder, you can take different paths - some will call the role of innateness the dominant one, while others will prefer to call the root cause of environmental influence. There is no consensus on this matter yet.

In treatment, or rather in prevention, methods are chosen with the help of which hysterical psychopathy is smoothed out, and a person would satisfy his painful egocentrism, but without much damage to others.

One should not think that histrionic personality disorder can be cured and that after therapy people will become completely different. We are talking rather about some reduction in the severity of symptoms and improvement in social adaptation.

Actually, if there are no problems in social adaptation, then people do not even suspect that they have hysterical personality disorder. There is no treatment, and they do not turn to specialists. There is no severe developmental pathology.

Medications

Treatment for personality disorder usually includes comprehensive measures that are aimed at eliminating symptoms and normalizing the patient’s condition and well-being. The main method is psychotherapy, which can take many years. But in addition to this, medications can also be prescribed, which usually serve to eliminate the symptoms of histrionic personality disorder. Prescriptions are made personally for each patient, depending on the picture of his disease. For example, people suffering from insomnia may be prescribed sleeping pills. For some patients, doctors prescribe sedatives and tranquilizers that help reduce anxiety.

Hysterical behavior cannot be cured with drugs alone. Work to eliminate the disorder can take many years, and the success of treatment depends mainly on the qualifications of the specialist and the motivation of the patient. Doctors rarely disclose drug treatment regimens, since in some cases they can be used for self-destructive and harmful effects on the body by patients.

Psychotherapy

The hysterical personality type in psychology is distinguished by egocentrism and self-obsession. This is where the lack of empathy and inability to empathize with another person comes from. Such people are often aggressive not only towards others, but also towards themselves. Aggression in psychology is destructive behavior that contradicts generally accepted norms and causes physical or moral harm to people. In fact, the behavior of people with a hysterical type of disorder constitutes aggression. It is rarely expressed directly, but it is always felt by people who have entered into close communication with patients. The behavior style of such people causes bewilderment and rejection among others. Psychotherapy is considered the main method for treating personality disorders.

People suffering from this disorder are usually difficult to treat. They come to the doctor only as a last resort - when life literally leaves them no other choice. Treatment can be based on a short-term approach, which does not aim at long-term changes, but at immediate relief from the patient's life difficulties. This is due to the fact that people with mental personality disorder rarely have the ability to expect a delayed effect from therapy and simply stop it if there is no significant result.

Age stages of manifestation of hysteroid traits

For a long time, experts attributed the hysterical personality type to a specific mental disorder that affects exclusively women. The occurrence and development of the disease was associated with inflammatory processes in the organs of the reproductive system. This perception of the problem has become a stereotype for many years.

Both men and women can have a hysterical character type. The debut of hysterics is observed in absolutely all children at an early age. As the emotional-volitional sphere of a person develops, certain behavioral characteristics become more pronounced. The hysterical type of reaction is an age-related variant of the norm for children aged 2-3 years, when the desire to be the center of everyone's attention for some time becomes one of the internal regulators of the child's behavior. This is why kids can fall hysterically on the floor in a store and scream, demanding to buy a toy.

Younger preschoolers are happy to show adults what they have learned or learned. The image of a toddler standing on a chair and reciting poetry from memory to his admiring relatives is a classic illustration of this period. As one grows older, this trait fades away, a person gains more diverse social experiences, and in most cases, the hysterical type of behavior ceases to be relevant. Although sometimes parents undertake to purposefully cultivate in their child the traits characteristic of a hysteroid, and specifically create conditions for maintaining a thirst for universal attention at any age. This educational strategy is quite dangerous, since it creates an accentuated, disharmonious personality.

Hysteria as a characteristic age-related feature can be observed again in adolescents. Against the backdrop of puberty and a hormonal explosion, the stupid desire to be in the center of attention, to achieve recognition, to be heard reappears. And to achieve this, teenagers use any means, so they often provoke many conflicts, displaying demonstrative and shocking behavior that angers and surprises adults. And again, with successful physiological and social development, a person matures, finds his audience and receives the necessary amount of attention. The hysterical type behavior model is gradually ceasing to be used.

If a person’s experience has retained the need to show hysteria, we can talk about formed accentuation - this is what psychology calls a behavior pattern fixed in an adult, associated with the most pronounced character traits, compared to others. Adults with hysterical type accentuations are quite common; they are successfully realized in the creative field and feel comfortable in a bohemian environment, and also become public leaders, find themselves in volunteering and social initiatives.

The lack of opportunity to express oneself leads to the fact that the hysterical is forced to attract the attention of random people with shocking antics and provocations. Store brawlers, uninvited advisers, people who demonstratively violate generally accepted social norms are often poorly compensated hysterics who have not learned to properly satisfy their need for public attention

The advantage of hysteria, like any other accentuation, is that, unlike the type of temperament, it can not only be corrected, but also almost completely smoothed out. In order for a person to become harmonious, various training programs have been developed, and there is special literature with the help of which one can cope with the tendency to hysterical manifestations at any age.

It is important for a hysteroid to learn to switch from aimless and dangerous shocking, provocative and defiant behavior. The longer the behavior pattern is fixed, the more deeply the personality is deformed.

If correction is not carried out in time, the condition may become borderline psychopathy, when medication and psychotherapy will be required.

Signs of the degeneration of a person with a hysterical type of character into a dangerous psychopath are:

social maladjustment, loss of the ability to interact normally with other people;
the disappearance of criticality regarding one’s actions, the commission of actions associated with a risk to life and health;
increasing intensity of emotional outbursts, their frequency and suddenness.

In cases where the behavior characteristic of individuals with a hysterical type of character cannot be corrected at home and causes discomfort and anxiety, consultation with a specialist is necessary.

Self help

Self-help for a disorder does not bring any results. There are also no anonymous groups that support people with similar problems. Even if you find such a community, it is unlikely that such sessions will be sufficiently effective due to the nature of the disease. Because people with histrionic personality disorder are overly dramatic, everyone in group meetings will try to draw attention to themselves, without paying attention to others. Therefore, the most optimal form of treatment is personal consultation with a psychotherapist. Experts also recommend refusing family consultations, since in this case communication will not be constructive.

Rules of communication

Dealing with a hysterical person can bring certain problems, especially if such a person works in a small team. When interacting with such an individual, you need to remember that he is self-centered and likes to exaggerate his feelings.

When communicating, you need to ignore emotional attacks and mitigate conflicts. You can influence a hysteroid through his desire to be ideal. For example, in case of conflict, you need to point out that now it looks ugly.

If you need to communicate for a long time, then you should not remind about mistakes and mistakes, otherwise this will lead to serious worries and problems. Also, you should not try to convince him of something - it is useless, since such people are always confident that they are right.

Communication with a hysterical psychopath requires high stability and immunity from other people. Not everyone can withstand such emotional swings.

Features of the disorder

Hysteria is a rather dangerous mental illness, which is often characterized by suicidal tendencies. The hysterical personality type in women manifests itself in the form of overly expressed sexuality, in some cases – nymphomania, theatricality and attempts to attract attention to one’s person. The same is observed in male patients.

In children, the hysterical personality type is not diagnosed, since this disease manifests itself only at the end of adolescence or in adulthood. A child is an unformed personality, so it is incorrect to talk about disorders of something that is only improving and changing. Children are prone to hysterics and some behavioral deviations, and these problems should certainly be corrected by a specialist psychologist, but they have nothing to do with the hysterical type of disorder.

Examples of demonstrative behavior of men

Traditionally, men are less prone to demonstrative behavior. However, occasionally hysterical accentuation occurs among representatives of the “stronger sex”. It manifests itself:

pathos of speech;
absolute denial of one’s own guilt and shifting responsibility onto others;
attempts to convince the listener of your sincerity and correctness;
boastfulness;
screams, sobs and even sobs in response to the presentation of facts of offenses.

There are many hysterics among the servants of art - composers, actors, directors. But often even the acting profession turns out to be burdensome for them, since it requires a lot of work.

In his book on accentuations, Leonhard cites several biographies as examples of the hysterical personality type. Many of the individuals examined did not systematically work anywhere, “earned their living” by fraud or simply theft, and often drank.

For example, one of the hysterical men examined, who was repeatedly imprisoned for theft, stubbornly did not admit his guilt. When they told him about the crimes he had committed, he fell into pathetic excitement, gesticulated, hit himself on the head and thighs, could not sit still - he jumped up, sat down, jumped up again.

“If I had a good job, I wouldn’t steal! - the hysterical man convinced the psychologist. “Before judging me, they would have asked how I came to such a life.” Then he “felt sorry” for his poor parents, who would “turn over in their grave” if they found out what their child had sunk to. All these tirades were accompanied by sobs and even sobs, but they were pure lies. Nothing prevented this man from leading an honest life, and he had problems finding work precisely because of his convictions for theft, to which he became addicted during the lifetime of his “poor parents.”

Another man with a hysterical personality type studied to become a car mechanic, but was unable to complete his studies and did not work anywhere. By the age of 42, he became a marriage swindler: he published an advertisement in the newspaper about his desire to meet, received a heap of letters from single women, wrote to them, and made an appointment. Then he lived with these women, allowing them to support him, “preparing” for the wedding, but one fine day he disappeared with his “beloved’s” valuables and money. It happened that he entered into relationships with several women at once, living with one or the other, and was courteous and polite with them. The ladies, even after his sudden disappearance, treated him with great sympathy, praising his ability to show sensitivity and care (opportunism, already familiar to us), his good habit of sending flowers and buying sweets.

Later, in order to avoid military service, the hysterian feigned illness. After the injury, he lost his speech for some time, and then stuttered for a long time. In the hospital he went on a hunger strike, then he was fed through a tube. All these adventures were recorded from his words when communicating with a psychologist. When the offenses were pointed out to him, he began to stutter and deny his guilt in a tearful voice. The excuses are still the same: if someone had given him a normal job, he would never have come to such a life.

One can say about men with a hysterical personality type: they are adventurers, born swindlers who, with their refined manners, sociability and courtesy, are able to endear themselves to others. But they will betray a woman or a friend with the same ease with which they manage to gain trust.

Data

If one of your loved ones has been diagnosed with a hysterical personality type, then it will be useful for you to know some facts about this disease:

Psychotherapy, medications, and alternative treatments together can be therapeutic and significantly reduce the distressing symptoms of the disorder. But treatment for this must be regular and long-term, only in this case it will bring the desired result.
Different types of disorders can manifest themselves differently in society. For example, some patients may hold relatively high positions at work, but at the same time fail in their personal relationships.
These disorders are more common in women than in men.
Histrionic personality type is a disorder in which a person exhibits excessive emotions, seeks attention, behaves provocatively, and constantly gets involved in conflicts in personal relationships.
Events that occur in childhood (death, parental divorce, violence) can lead to a personality disorder.
People with the problems described tend to exaggerate the good attitude of others towards them and attribute greater importance to friendships than they really are.

Differences in psychotypes by gender

Gender imposes on an individual a completely different perception of reality. It’s no secret that women are more attentive to details and the world around them, they notice and remember everything. At the same time, they often cannot discern the whole behind the details and see the full picture.

Men - in contrast - have the ability to view the world more broadly, which gives them the ability to analyze the issue more globally. At the same time, they are simply indifferent to details and do not notice what the ladies are touched by.

This difference puts its own spin on the psychotypes of women. As a result, all of them can be strengthened by the following differences:

Eternal mother. Such women always care and look after someone. They occupy leading positions in the family.
Activist. They prefer to live for themselves. These are strong and independent women who require attention and care.
Altruist. She builds her world around her beloved man, whose interests come first for her.
Daughter. This type cannot live without care and guardianship. In life, only one’s own interests prevail. Usually spoiled.

Psychotypes of men also have an additional color due to their gender:

Father. Everything is under control. In the family, he demands unquestioning obedience. Avoids admitting mistakes and making compromises. Activist. He seeks profit everywhere and in everything, including marriage. Loves risk. The priority is your desires. Altruist. A business owner, family comes first for him

He surrounds her with his care and attention. Son. Proud and selfish - an eternal child

Lives one day at a time, prone to squandering.

Results

Hysterical personality disorder is a very painful mental illness that causes many problems not only for others, but also for the patient himself. It is characterized by a high level of anxiety, numerous conflicts and contradictions. Such people tend to deliberately look for dangerous situations and get involved in various adventures.

Not all of them can suspect the presence of the disease, so they often do not resort to treatment. However, an experienced specialist, through personal examination, conversation and mental tests, can quickly make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. The only effective method at the moment is psychotherapy, which can take a lot of time. But with its help, the patient will be able to get rid of painful symptoms and after a while feel much better.