PERSONALITY DISORDERS VS. MENTAL ILLNESS: What the Advaita Teachings Can Address and What They Cannot, Part One

F.: The discussion of this topic is an ongoing one on the site. Why? The Advaita Teachings address personality problems and provide a means for being free of those problems. It will be shown again that there are conditions that appear to be rooted in mental illness but that are actually rooted in personality disorders. Evidence that those disorders can be effectively treated by the Teachings will be provided in tomorrow’s post with a recounting of the condition that “floyd” once suffered. Before continuing, though, two points are offered: (1) mental illnesses that are truly clinical in nature cannot be addressed by the Teachings and require treatment of the type provided by trained professionals; and (2) mental illness affects 1%-5% of the population whereas 95%-99% suffer from one or more personality disorders, to some degree.

Yesterday’s post included this:

As this discussion of the relevance of the Teachings is underway, what may prove to be a prime example of relevance was presented yesterday on the Virginia Tech campus. When the details behind the shooting are revealed, it might be found that the shooter was not clinically insane. It might be found instead that the shooter was trapped in an ego-state that he thought was being hurt, interfered with, or threatened.

Another possibility is that a combination of mental and personality disorders was at play, along with the possibility of an impact from the side effects of certain medications. More may be revealed about that case, but it must be noted again that nothing has ever been offered on this site to discount the toll of mental illness. Furthermore, if there is any suspicion that a mental illness is at play, the advice is always to seek out a professional for help. (That was the message sent last week in a private e-mail response to one wondering how to help a friend experiencing serious delusions. The friend wondered if the Advaita Teaching might help. The severity of his friend’s behavior led to a recommendation to forget trying to use the Advaita Teachings and to contact those in his community’s social services network and find help from the professionally-trained.)

What is being offered is an invitation to broaden the national and international discussion by inviting persons to consider other possible “causes” for most of the misery and suffering and outrageous acts of violence that mark the human condition and to stop the misclassification of personality disorders as mental illnesses. Why? Because a misdiagnosis of any problem will guarantee a continuation of the problem and will assure that any treatment plan being tried will be ineffective. That lesson was learned early on from an uncle whose entire career was in the field of mental health. As an adolescent spending his summers with an uncle that worked as the Chief Administrator of the Texas State Mental Hospital in Rusk, time was spent with patients there (an act in the late 1950's and early 1960’s that could not take place nowadays).

Only a small area of the facility was required for the housing of violent patients. Most of those confined as a result of their mental illnesses were docile and gentle and, yes, loving. Helping out in the cafeteria, contact happened with many patients who would initiate conversations, and it would later be discussed with the uncle about how kind most of the mentally ill were. The uncle agreed, saying that most who were locked away in that facility had conducted themselves in a far more civil manner than did the masses that were free to roam the streets. He emphasized that most of the mentally ill in his facility had never behaved as violently as the majority of persons behave, trapped as they are in personality. When persons feel that one or more of their (false) identities are being threatened, those suffering from personality disorders (which are rooted in the adoption of false personas) will fight, attack and destroy as if for their lives.

So, in light of the happenings on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday, might the Advaita Teachings have any relevance? Certainly, the majority in the nation will dismiss anything other than mental illness as “the cause.” (The Advaitin knows right off that “one, single cause” for any happening is a myth.) Reports that the shooter was being treated for depression have surfaced, yet he was just 1 of 21,000,000 in the U.S. who was diagnosed with depression during the last twelve months. But there were not 21,000,000 shooters in the U.S. last year, so maybe other factors came to bear. One respected psychotherapist who has treated thousands of patients over the years and who has reviewed some of Cho’s history saw similarities with certain of her patients who were suffering paranoid schizophrenia. What several of those patients had in common was sexual molestation as a child, some abused by family members and many assaulted by priests. (It is known that in some of his writings, Cho raised the issue of pedophilia, discussed his anger with parents, and expressed his anger toward women.)

Further, shooters are common within the U.S. borders. A woman dies as the result of spousal abuse every 6 hours in the U.S. and a man dies as the result of spousal abuse every 8.64 hours in the U.S. And that statistic just takes into account “the married” and does not count those killed during breakups among “not married” parties. Yet more often than not, those are not murder statistics; those are not mental illness statistics; those are persona statistics.

So another factor to be raised in the national discussion, therefore, is the possibility of one or more personality disorders. Sometimes all that is required in order to believe that one has the right to decide who lives and who dies is to be suffering the personality disorder known as “the God Complex.” If you read the postings in late March and early April on this site, you read about the types of personality disorders that are most likely to appear with each of the nine personality types. Some of you noticed that among all nine of the enneagram personality types, the God Complex was listed for every one. (Of course, when ego-states appear, ego defense mechanisms follow, and when living in ego—as personas do—then the arrogance of a God Complex is common.)

The God Complex, along with the associated disorders of narcissism and egomania, can inspire lethal conduct. Consider the level of arrogance that is required for persons to believe the following: “I can decide who lives and dies”; “I am a loving being but I can also be a wrathful being”; “I tried to give warnings to this culture to change your ways…now you will pay the price for ignoring me”; “I will be made immortal with this act and will be obscured no more”; “I will go as far over the line as I must in order to make you hear me and pay attention to my words”; "I have been trying to speak out and tell you what is wrong, but you ignore my words and that makes me very angry"; “I, and my important words, will be remembered forever”; “when you ignore me, you will be punished and will feel my wrath”; “sometimes it's lonely being god, having everyone ignore you during times when the masses are so self-absorbed and not knowing how wonderful I am”; “the world needs reforming and I'm just the one to do it”; “when the world gets so far out of hand, a reign of terror is justified to bring down punishment on people and let them see that I mean business”; “I am the judge of what is ‘right vs. wrong,’ ‘moral vs. immoral,’ and what ‘proper punishment vs. proper reward’ is”; “I can create or sustain or destroy you—it is my option…it is my providence.” It has been witnessed that the more "godly" some people become, the more they behave just like their destructive Judaeo-Christian-Islamic god.

That level of arrogance inspired by the God Complex Personality Disorder is not unique to the Virginia Tech shooter. That is the level of arrogance that many are being exposed to on a daily basis with an arrogant spouse, an arrogant boss, an arrogant person cutting you off in traffic, an arrogant person behaving in an abusive way in a store, ad infinitum. Should the current discussion focus on a "madman" or should it focus on "a mad man" (or "a mad woman")?

Again, 95%-99% of the planet’s population is suffering from some personality disorder(s), and the disorder that is common to all nine enneagram types is the God Complex described above. So the shooter’s "mental" vs. "personality" condition notwithstanding, the question for those interested in the Advaita Teachings is this: is it possible that you are dealing with someone who is suffering from the God Complex? Is it possible that you are suffering from a God Complex? Ego-states generate egomania, and egomania generates much of the suffering and misery on the planet. With 1%-5% in need of the level of care that is provided by professionals in the mental healthcare industry, but with 95%-99% needing The Understanding that is provided by the Advaita Teachings via elimination of personality, what treatment plan is most indicated for the majority on this planet? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Seventeen

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: Personality Type Eights can eventually exhibit the Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) when they become stressed, overly-pious, highly-spiritual, or role-players, along with a God Complex Disorder.

See earlier entries for information on all except the ASPD. Those with the ASPD have little or no regard for the rights of others, the feelings of others, or for any of society’s norms and rules and laws. That “me vs. them” mentality fosters duality. ASPD’s are typically quite impulsive, have limited feelings and little empathy, and have little regard for the consequences of their actions. They are especially deceitful and thus quite effective at conning people. They are irritable and aggressive and irresponsible while being able to rationalize and justify all of their conduct.

Personality Type Nines can eventually exhibit the DID Personality Disorder and the Dependent Personality Disorder and the Schizoid Personality Disorder along with a God Complex Personality Disorder when they become stressed, overly-pious, or identified with a spiritualized ego or any other role.

All of the disorders experienced among Nines have been discussed above except for DID. DID (or Multiple Personality Disorder) has been discussed thoroughly in earlier postings that can be reviewed: search January 24, 2007 as well as February 11, 17, 18, 19, 2007.

So, the Advaitin understands that personality identification comes from a twisted and warped “mind” and that almost all relative existence suffering and misery stem from personality. As reported by the APA, the defects that result from personality have nothing to do with mental illness. Trained professionals are required to assist the 1%-5% with clinical mental illnesses. A Realized teacher could guide the remaining 95%-99% to freedom from personality disorders if that 95%-99% recognized that they were suffering from such disorders and truly wanted to be totally free of the effects. Yet few will ever understand their disorders, and fewer still will be willing to discard all that must be discarded in order to be truly free and joyous.

The modern understanding of personality disorders discussed above support the ancient pointers that have been offered by Advaitin teachers for centuries as they have recommended detaching from personality identification and then Realizing fully. Review the following summary of the relative existence results of personality identification and the subsequent personality disorders:

Obsessing; playing god; perfectionism; judging; criticizing; financial problems; relationship problems; arrogance; depression; instability; emotional intoxication; distorted self-images; hysteria; an exaggerated sense of self-importance; a sense of superiority; grandiosity; a sense of entitlement; using others; lacking empathy; envy; blind faith; childish behavior among adults; and egotism.

Next, an understanding of the personality types—and the obstacles to Realization that are generated by each personality—can reveal why so few will ever Realize. 50% of the earth’s populations are Type Sixes. When Sixes are programmed with dogma, as nearly 99% on the planet are, they will remain loyal to those beliefs, unquestioningly, and will accept what they have been told. Why? Being fear-based, they become trapped by their programmers’ threat: “If you do not have faith in what we say or if you doubt any part of it at all, you will be punished and you will suffer now and forevermore.” Therefore, the tally of those who will never be enlightened starts with that 50% who most likely will never give up their beliefs in dogma and nonsense. In an essay on his website, Mark McCloskey had this to say about “faith”:

Faith is a crutch that humans have used for millennia as a way to explain the unexplainable….” (On August 9, 2006 on this site, a similar reference was made to religious leaders who have historically dreamed up “concepts and ideas and teachings and beliefs that were used to convey false and supernatural explanations for events that were totally natural happenings.” Such is the essence of childish, magical thinking. Only if you mistakenly believe that an imagined “world” is real will you also be required to mistakenly believe that an imagined god—who was actually “created” by man in man’s image—is real.)

McCloskey continues, “If you stay with a crutch when you do not need it, you can become lame by reason of the crutch itself. The crutch must be abandoned, thrown away and then you can walk freely again….” He says, “Faith or any belief system as a whole is the final hurdle to overcome in the human path towards freedom and joy. Let me say it on a very personal level. Until you, as a human being, are able to completely abandon what you believe, have been told or taught what to believe or believe in, you will never experience this moment of reality as it is. You will never be fully free. You will be conditioned to experience present reality through a veil of the past…. This is not a joke, not any agnostic or atheistic principle. I am trying to point you to your own total human freedom to be able to live in this world joyfully….”

Sixes are especially prone to use the crutch that Mark speaks of, though all nine types can be programmed very easily. They will blindly and unquestioningly accept whatever they are told by anyone whom they take to be a “religious, spiritual, or political leader.” Relatedly, most Type Threes will live as a Six at times, exhibiting the Six’s blind loyalty to belief systems while being dedicated to image-building. By sheer numbers, most on the planet are living under the influence of a Three-Six personality. Threes are more interested in creating false images and maintaining those false images, actually believing that their images are real. With the preponderance of the Three-Six in the earth’s population, the majority on the planet will live like conditioned children, remaining loyal to whatever they were taught (Type Six) and always fighting to maintain image and always rejecting any invitation to get in touch with reality (Type Three).

Other types also face obstacles to enlightenment: Type Eights are prone to attach to supernatual beliefs since they think that such beliefs are another means to accumulating power (and thus control); therefore, they are not likely to abandon magical thinking and then Realize. Nines attach to the images that they use to manipulate others to take care of them. Two’s create a loving image in order to obtain what they think they lack and will attach to that image. Like Three’s, they are always “on stage.” Sevens have little desire to face reality and prefer to escape instead. Is it becoming clear why personality is a major hindrance to Realization?

Of all of the nine basic personality types, only Fours are geared toward the search for authenticity, toward attainment of a sense of unity, and toward the quest to discover the True Self, but Fours only account for about 1% of the earth’s population. As for Realizing fully, their dilemma lies in the fact that they are less prone to logic and more prone to seeing the dualities in the relative existence and seeking the “beautiful,” the “moral,” the “romantic,” or the “harmonious.”

So, the conundrum should now be obvious: the “mind” and personality must be abandoned to Realize, but persons value the “mind” and identify with personality; thus, both continue to be the great obstacles to Realization. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion] For additional information about the book which these extracts are being drawn from (There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind") click

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COMING NEXT: A RIVER THAT FLOWS INTO THE OCEAN OF REALITY