Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships With People With Disorders of Personality and Character

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 19 Mar 2005 - 19:00 PDT


Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships With People With Disorders of Personality and Character is a recent book authored by Stuart C. Yudofsky M.D., APA Distinguished Fellow, and published by American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Fatal Flaws provides both mental health professionals and their patients with practical and effective help in understanding and changing destructive relationships with those who have severe and persistent personality and character disorders.

The book defines personality flaws as "brain-based dysfunctions of thinking and impulse that lead to persistent patterns of personality and behavior that betray trust and destroy relationships." Fatal Flaws presents many case studies and an abundance of helpful information about how to understand, diagnose and treat people with personality disorders and how to disentangle oneself from a relationship with a person with personality disorders that do not change.

Dr. Yudofsky defines "a fatal flaw" as a personality disorder that is not amenable to change and one that will likely result in serious injury or violations of the law. The eight personality disorders that most often lead to fatal flaws are: hysterical (histrionic), narcissistic, antisocial, paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, addictive, borderline, and schizotypal personality disorders.

Fatal Flaws details nine principles for dealing with people with fatal flaws and provides a fatal flaws quiz to determine whether their loved ones have personality or character disorders. Dr. Yudofsky invites readers to answer questions like: "Do I trust this person?; Does this person respect rules and obey laws?; and Does this person persist in engaging in activities that are impulsive, unnecessarily dangerous, or self destructive?" The quiz will help people to learn more about these conditions and their treatments before making a decision about securing the help of a mental health professional.

"Fatal Flaws is that rare cross-over book that effectively speaks to both patients and psychiatrists," said Ethel Person M.D., Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; Training and Supervising Analyst, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and APA Distinguished Life Fellow. "My hunch is that therapists will refer this "must-own" book to their patients and patients will refer it to their therapists."

For more information on Fatal Flaws, please visit the American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., website at http://www.appi.org.

About the Author

Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D., is D.C. and Irene Ellwood Professor and Chairman of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. He is Chief of Psychiatry Services at The Methodist Hospital and is also responsible for oversight of academic activities in psychiatry at The Menninger Clinic and Hospital, the Ben Taub General Hospital, the Houston Veterans Administration Medical Center, the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and the Texas Children's Hospital. For the past seventeen years, Dr. Yudofsky has been Editor of the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. He is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and an APA Distinguished Life Fellow.

The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society, founded in 1844, whose nearly 36,000 physician members specialize in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses including substance use disorders. For more information, visit the APA Web site at http://www.psych.org.

• Additional
• References
• Citations