Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Sean Mactire's book  Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think offers three factors in creating a great antagonist: the four basics (irresponsibility, self-indulgence, interpersonal intrusiveness, and social rule-breaking), a mental illness, and one or more characteristics from the list I posted on January 22, 2012. So far, I've covered two of the thirteen mental illnesses Mactire covers. Today is number three, the Schizotypal Personality Disorder (SPD).

This disorder is similar to schizophrenia. Four of the following factors must be evident to successfully diagnose SPD:

• Evidence of odd beliefs separating thinking from reality
• Ideas of reference
• High social anxiety
• Has occasional illusions or odd perceptual experiences
• Peculiar patterns of communication, such as metaphorical, vague, or digressive speech
• Inappropriate or constricted emotional responses
• Suspiciousness
• No close friends or confidants other than family
• Odd or eccentric behavior or appearance

I found Mactire's explanation a little vague, so I went online to PubMed Health. It says SPD "is a mental health condition in which a person has trouble with relationships and disturbances in thought patterns, appearance, and behavior... they are very disturbed. They may have unusual preoccupations and fears, such as fears of being monitored by government agencies... and have unusual beliefs (such as aliens). They cling to these beliefs so strongly that it prevents them from having relationships.... they feel upset by their difficulty in forming and keeping close relationships. This is different from people with schizophrenia, who do not want to form relationships."

I'll admit, it's still a little vague in my mind, but there are a few tidbits in there to play with in your fiction. The part about being monitored by government agencies sounded a little like the paranoid disorder I discussed in my last post. The bit about believing in aliens could be fun to use in fiction, unless you're writing sci-fi and actually HAVE aliens in your story. I think I'm getting off track, though. The part I found the most intriguing, believe it or not, is the part about SPD's feeling upset with their difficulty in forming and keeping close relationships.

Let's play with the personality types again. I'll make my antagonist an INFJ, or "counselor." Her sole purpose in life is to mentor and help other people realize their full potential. She wants nothing more than to contribute to the welfare of others. Now give her SPD. She's got high social anxiety--how's she supposed to help these people when she's afraid to get near them? She has trouble communicating--how's she supposed to help these poor people when she can't find the right words? Aliens might suck up all these needy people, and then who will she help? 

I may be veering toward the silly side (okay, I really am being silly) but you can see how you could use this disorder to create a believable antagonist for your novel. Try adding SPD to your own personality type and see what kind of antagonist you can come up with. Remember to pair it with the Four Basics (listed above) for a truly criminal mind.

Next up is Schizoid Personality Disorder, which is different from SPD, despite their similar names.

-Sonja

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Sean Mactire's book  Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think offers three factors in creating a great antagonist: the Four Basics (irresponsibility, self-indulgence, interpersonal intrusiveness, and social rule-breaking), a mental illness, and one or more characteristics from the list I posted on January 22, 2012. While I covered the list and the Four Basics pretty thoroughly, I'm taking my time on the mental illness factor. Mactire listed 13 of them. I'm on number two today, the Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD).

PPD has at least four factors that must be evident since early adulthood in order to diagnose it properly:

• Expects to be harmed or exploited
• Sees threats everywhere or thinks others regard him or her as inferior
• Unforgiving, bears grudges
• Fears confiding in others, thinks information will be used against him or her
• Easily slighted or angered
• Questions partners about sexual fidelity
• Questions loyalty of others, such as family

I think PPD could be such a fun thing to play with in a character, and I'll comment on that in a moment, but I want to start by saying I am in NO WAY making light of people who suffer from this disorder in the real world. Reality is totally different from creative fiction, and I'm looking at this disorder solely from a fictional viewpoint. 

To thoroughly utilize these symptoms in fiction, plug them into a personality. I'll start with my own, since I know it so well: the ISTJ, or "Inspector." This person's motto is "rules are to be obeyed at all costs." They are dedicated to scrutinizing everything for inconsistencies, looking at all the details, letting no irregularities or discrepancies get by them. They make great accountants or inventory personnel. Now give her PPD. Now the rules are her savior AND her tormentor. After all, no one can obey ALL the rules. Now all her rule-breaking co-workers are getting away with things that Should Not Be Gotten Away With. Her supervisor isn't enforcing the rules. He's probably looking for any rules that SHE'S broken so he can fire her. All those nasty co-workers, who always get away with rule-breaking, are conspiring behind her to catch her in the slightest transgression, then report back to the boss. You can see where this could easily lead to violent tendencies, if your ISTJ character also has the Four Basics (listed above).

That was so much fun, I'll try another personality type. How about my husband, the INTP, or "the Architect." They are preoccupied with spatial relativity and systems design, especially theoretical systems. The world is nothing more than a pile of raw materials to be reshaped according to their design, and it exists primarily to be analyzed, understood, and explained. With their grand desire to grasp the laws of unity and diversity, they can be a bit snobbish and may show impatience at times with others less endowed or driven, which may cause hostility and defensive maneuvers on the part of others. Now toss in a big helping of PPD. Suddenly you've got a brilliant computer geek who sees the world as mere components to build his "grand scheme," and that world is out to get him. He never played well with others before, but now he'll be down-right hostile to those out to get him. He won't engage face-to-face; that'd be too much human interaction for him. No, this is the guy who will plot his enemy's destruction via systems: computer systems, electrical systems, water management systems, etc. Kind of scary. Keep in mind, INTP's are rare in this world, so an INTP with PPD would be exceedingly rare. Use him sparingly and wisely.

I'd love to try another, but it's your turn. Choose your personality type, throw in some PPD, and see what kind of bad guy YOU'D make. Share in the comments section if you come up with something fantastic.

-Sonja

Borderline Personality Disorder

In my last post, I offered the ingredients for a great antagonist: the four basics (irresponsibility, self-indulgence, interpersonal intrusiveness, and social rule-breaking), a mental illness, and one or more characteristics from a list (see previous post for the list). I'm taking all of this from Sean Mactire's book  Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think. I've already covered the four basics, and the list was pretty self-explanatory, but I didn't touch on the mental illness factor. Mactire thoughtfully provided 13 mental illnesses in his book, and I'm going to cover each of them in a separate post. 

Mactire starts this section off by saying, "Antisocial personality disorder is the most common disorder seen in career criminals with a history of violence. Personality disorders are chronic, pervasive and inflexible patterns of behavior and thinking that are very common to the maladaptive minds of the criminal world." Then he offers his list and their symptoms. Today's mental illness is Borderline Personality Disorder, brought to you by the letter I.

At least five of the following factors must be evident since early adulthood (15-18) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to be diagnosed:

• Physically self-damaging behavior
• Uncontrolled, inappropriate behavior
• Unstable, intense relationships with people
• Unstable mood
• Unstable identity
• Chronically bored; requires high levels of stimulation
• Avoids being alone or feeling alone, will not allow himself to be abandoned by another
• Unpredictably impulsive regarding sex, drugs or alcohol

After reading the list, I was still a little stumped as to how this would look in a character, so I went to PubMed Health online and read up. That site says BPD "is a condition in which people have long-term patterns of unstable or turbulent emotions, such as feelings about themselves or others. These inner experiences often cause them to take impulsive actions and have chaotic relationships." 

I'm not a mental health professional, and I readily admit I still don't know what this would look like in a bad guy. I have a feeling this disorder is difficult to diagnose in real people, because many of these symptoms can appear in people who don't have any disorder whatsoever. But if you combine all these symptoms in a single character, you're bound to come up with someone unpredictable, and therefore interesting to a reader.

Stay tuned for personality disorder #2.

-Sonja

What Makes A Career Criminal

Sean Mactire says, in his book  Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think, that there are many reasons why a person chooses to follow a life of crime, and that statement is a treasure trove for mystery writers wanting to create awesome bad guys. Sure, we could come up with some great ideas on our own, as we writers have incredibly imaginations, but lets check out what Mactire has to say in Chapter 10.

It's human nature to blame bad behavior on outside factors: poverty, child abuse, drug abuse, or the classic "Satan made me do it." Humans don't like facing reality when it's horrible, and they certainly don't like taking personal responsibility for their actions. Mactire says, "Criminal behavior has four basic characteristics: irresponsibility, self-indulgence, interpersonal intrusiveness, and social rule-breaking." What causes people to become criminals can be these four characteristics combined with mental illness and any of the following:

1. Poverty

2. Low intelligence

3. Poor parenting

4. Hyperactivity, which can be traced to a medical condition

5. Stimulation seeking

6. Psychopathy

7. Impulsivity

8. Learning disorders

9. Any untreated disability or one not coped with well.

No one is born a criminal, but when you combine the immature, self-centered sinner with impulse control issues with one or more things from this list, you've got a recipe for an antagonist. PLEASE don't hear me say that this list, alone, can cause criminal behavior. It's only when combined with the original recipe bad guy (see the quote above) that you have the potential. So, if you're having trouble turning your antagonist from a two-dimensional stereotype into a well-rounded believable baddie, try adding some of these things from the list and see what happens.

-Sonja

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

I'm deep within Sean Mactire's book, Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think, in the chapter regarding victims of violent crime. I'm using the information to create believable characters for my stories. Today's topic is Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, or PTSS. Many people think PTSS only applies to combat vets, but anyone who has experienced a traumatic crisis can exhibit the symptoms of PTSS. Mactire lists the symptoms that may show up in a person with PTSS (note: not ALL of them show up in a single person - that'd be overkill and quite unbelievable).

1. Prolonged shock and emotional numbness

2. Insomnia

3. Nightmares

4. Abuse of prescription drugs and/or alcohol

5. Trembling

6. Sudden, unexplainable bouts of crying

7. Disorientation

8. Fear and hyper-vigilance

9. Acute anxiety with occasional panic attacks - likely to occur when the victim is somehow reminded of the trauma or around the time of the anniversary of the trauma

10. Depression

11. Helplessness

12. Loss of control or inability to manage control

13. Gradual change into dependent state

14. Violent bursts of temper

15. Aggression

16. Fatigue

17. Physical ailments: chest pain, heart attack, ulcers, seizures, partial paralysis, arthritic-type muscle pain

18. Delusions and other neurotic behavior

19. Suicidal tendencies related to loss of hope after prolonged experience of above symptoms

Mix and match symptoms for your characters to create a believable response to crisis. Pair trembling with violent bursts of temper and delusions, and you'll get a dangerous character. Put alcohol abuse with depression and you may have a suicidal character. Mix drug abuse with chest pain, and your character may end up dead. There's quite a few possibilities, and if you match these symptoms up to individual personality traits, you'll end up with a much richer character. 

For instance, your ENTJ ("field marshal") character's driving force is to achieve The Goal, whatever that might be. The reader would expect this personality type to react with violent bursts of temper and aggression, especially if he's a high-ranking military officer (many of whom are ENTJs). However, what would happen to this character if they, instead, reacted with an inability to manage control and a gradual change into a dependent state? What would happen to the ESFJ personality ("the Provider" or the person who's mission in life is to make sure everyone is cared for) if she gradually changed into a dependent state? Or worse, what if she were overcome with fear, delusions,  and panic attacks? How could she fulfill her life's mission if she's paranoid that people are out to get her? By mixing and matching symptoms that are opposite the characters personality traits, you can create memorable and believable victims for your novels.

That's the last post on victims. Next time we'll move into a new chapter of Mactire's book.

-Sonja

Reaction to Traumatic Crisis

Sean Mactire's book, Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think, has an entire chapter devoted to the victims of violent crime. I'm using the information to create believable victims for my novels.

"When traumatic crises hit, victims are overwhelmed by a state of emotional instability, a sort of temporary insanity, characterized by intense fear and often painful physical symptoms," Mactire says. He's speaking of victims who survive, or family/friends of victims who didn't survive. He goes on to say that coping mechanisms are inadequate, and without finding an effective way of dealing with this stress, more problems will crop up. More problems = more tension, more conflict, more fingernail-biting on the part of the reader. This is a good thing, for a writer. Not so good for the characters involved.

But sometimes you want your characters to move out of this emotional basket case they're in. Mactire lists three phases that people go through. Try shoe-horning your grieving character through one or more of these phases, throw some new tensions at them, and you'll have a very believable character. Here are those three phases, copied directly out of the book for your enjoyment:

1. The Impact Phase. This is the acute reaction to crisis. Symptoms are shock, disbelief, dismay, anxiety, unstable emotions, and a severe inability to function. This reaction is immediate and can last for months, sometimes years, depending on the victim's ability to cope.

2. The Recoil Phase. This is the period of outward adjustment to the crisis. The acute symptoms diminish and the victims gradually return to near-normal levels of functioning. Routine business of living slowly resumes, even though, sometimes, victims will continue to deny the true consequences of the crisis. This is a natural defense mechanism for victims, as they are attempting to protect themselves and others from the "danger." Also, victims' interests may expand to concern for others. This phase begins as soon as the victim comes to term with the acute phase.

3. Long-term Reorganization Phase. This is the period of integration and resolution of fears and pain. This is also the time when victims grow into survivors. They attempt to adapt the crises experiences into their lives, as well as try to understand and resolve the meaning they have found attached to their survival of the crises. Even though these new "survivors" have found strength they never knew existed, it is not uncommon for them to occasionally experience feelings of loss and depression. This is a natural and necessary feeling.

These phases are based on people who were psychologically healthy before the crisis struck. If your character was psychologically unhealthy before the crisis struck, then you're free to wreck havoc . Also keep in mind that human beings are rather quirky, and sometimes don't follow these phases as they're supposed to. Using the personality profiles I talked about last year, you could amplify some characteristic and take the Recoil Phase to a dangerous level. Take your INFJ character (the "counselor"), with her overwhelming desire to help others, and use that personality trait to show her working through her grief by feeding all the neighborhood kids healthy snacks every day, to the point of putting herself in financial jeopardy. Or have your ESFP (the "Performer") book performances for every night of the week, driving himself to exhaustion. These dangerous attempts at dealing with grief will definitely cause problems and keep the character from moving into Phase Three.

These three phases remind me Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' Five Stages of Grieving: denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Whatever system you use, make sure it's a long, hard road for your character or you'll lose reader interest.

-Sonja

More Victims than Just the Dead Guy

To write a great mystery, you need a sympathetic victim. Sean Mactire's book, Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminal Think, contains useful information for creating a great victim, but he takes it even further. The psychological and emotional trauma has a far-reaching impact, and a great writer will take that into account.

Friends, families, and entire communities become victims, too. Think of a bomb blast. The victim is at ground zero and gets the full impact of the blast, both physically and emotionally. Then the emotional shock waves spread. The family is engulfed. Then the wave spreads, and friends are hurt. Then coworkers, classmates, acquaintances, and other casual relationships. "The outer circle may be distant from the harm," Mactire says, "but the suffering is the same." The community where the victim lives--and if it's a different location, the community where the crime occurred--also feel the blast. Mactire says that anyone within a two to five mile radius could feel overcome with fear and will experience some of the symptoms of traumatic shock and post-traumatic stress syndrome. 

Mactire brings up a great example. In a city where he once lived, a man was shot and killed when he answered a knock at his front door. It was two escaped convicts. They killed him, took his car keys, and drove off. This man became a victim simply because he had a car parked in front of his house and the lights were on. The next day, his quiet community was an armed camp. Anyone knocking on doors were greeted with rifles, shotguns, you name it. People walked their dogs and shopped for food with handguns in their pockets. Almost five years after the crime, the people are still heavily armed, and every time a new crime occurs in the neighborhood, that old wound from the original shooting is opened and the people's fear and pain increase.

Keep these things in mind when you kill off your sympathetic victim. Family members may be too devastated to speak to the police, who are desperately in need of information that only family members can provide. The victim's neighbors will be shell-shocked, and might not be able to recall necessary information. Sometimes entire communities panic when a violent crime occurs, and that could lead to accidents, misunderstandings, and more homicides. There are many different ways people respond to trauma (heightened vigilance, violence, total withdrawal, apathy, etc), so be sure to put some of these realistic reactions into your victim's sphere of influence and see how it impacts your story.

-Sonja