Part of the Casswiki article series Books
Character Disturbance: The Phenomenon of Our Age is a book by George K. Simon, first published in 2011, which explores the issue of the increasing prevalence of character disorder in modern times. In today’s social climate of permissiveness and entitlement, with a culture that promotes narcissism, neurosis is less common than it used to be, while irresponsible and problematic attitudes and behaviors have greatly increased.
Simon explains that manipulative and exploitative characters cannot be cured by treating them as if their problems were due to some great, underlying suffering. Rather, such behavior follows from distorted thinking, a sense of entitlement, and a refusal to take responsibility. As such, what those who have developed a pathological character need above all is correction. (Though in the case of psychopathy and some other severe character disorders, these are known to be incurable, though Simon only touches on this as a possibility.)
The book contrasts the types of personalities that result from neurotic issues with those having disturbed characters. It goes on to examine the cognitive and behavioral aspects of destructive psychopathologies, in a way that is useful for understanding, recognizing, and dealing with those so afflicted. It can be seen as a rewrite, more broad in scope, of George Simon’s earlier book In Sheep’s Clothing. The earlier book focused more narrowly on understanding and dealing with covertly aggressive manipulators, which is one of the types of the character disturbed that George Simon identifies.
Further reading
- Cassiopaea Forum – George Simon: Character Disturbance (A thread on Character Disturbance with useful excerpts and some discussion.)
- Cassiopaea Forum – Extraits de Perturbation du caractère - Excerpts from Character Disturbance (A French translation of excerpts from Character Disturbance.)
See also
- In Sheep’s Clothing
- Ponerization
- Characteropathy
- Psychopathy