April 29, 2022 – Amid all the eye this month to actor Johnny Depp’s $50 million lawsuit in opposition to ex-wife Amber Heard, a psychological time period has entered the general public’s lexicon: histrionic personality disorder.
Depp says that an op-ed Heard wrote in 2018 harm his profession, and he’s suing for defamation.
The time period was utilized in courtroom throughout the testimony of Shannon Curry, PsyD, a medical and forensic psychologist in California and Hawaii, who carried out a psychological evaluation of Heard and stated that she met with Heard for 12 hours.
Curry testified that Heard has each borderline personality disorder and histrionic character dysfunction. Heard has stated she has posttraumatic stress disorder.
Because of her situation, Heard may be very involved with picture, liable to cruelty and blaming others, and unable to confess duty for doing one thing improper, Curry testified, as reported in Newsweek.
So what precisely is histrionic character dysfunction, and the way does it differ from the opposite, better-known character issues, equivalent to paranoid, narcissistic, or obsessive-compulsive?
Histrionic character dysfunction – histrionic means overly theatrical or melodramatic – tends to be extra frequent in ladies, will be realized or inherited, and comes with “intense, unstable feelings and distorted self-images,” in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
And people with the dysfunction are inclined to behave dramatically, depend on different folks’s approval to bolster their vanity, and have an “overwhelming want to be observed.”
Histrionic character dysfunction is way much less generally identified than narcissistic or borderline character dysfunction, says Jessica January Behr, PsyD, a licensed psychologist in New York Metropolis.
“The factors for the dysfunction might be far more generally seen than identified,” she says. “To diagnose somebody with histrionic character dysfunction, an individual has to fulfill 5 out of 9 very particular standards.”
These 9 standards embrace being uncomfortable until you’re the focus, your feelings shifting quickly, performing very dramatically – as if performing earlier than an viewers – with exaggerated feelings and expressions but showing to lack sincerity, and consistently searching for reassurance or approval, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
In the end, this dysfunction is a severe one, and the label shouldn’t be used until a mental health knowledgeable who has evaluated you and carried out sure diagnostic assessments confirms it.
For therapy, folks with the dysfunction will typically search counseling to uncover the motivations and fears related to their ideas and conduct, and the counselor will assist the particular person study to narrate to others in a extra optimistic means.
A well being care skilled may additionally prescribe treatment to deal with the depression and nervousness that usually include this dysfunction, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s good that persons are studying about this psychological time period, however it’s necessary to keep away from making an armchair prognosis,” Behr says. “We additionally must watch out to not conflate ‘dramatic’ and ‘histrionic.’ To have histrionic character dysfunction requires sure standards to be met, and this isn’t a time period for use calmly.”
