A person is characterized by the desire to understand himself and the people around him. Today, such a field of psychology as characterology, in the center of the study of which is all the variety of characters, can come to the rescue in this matter.
Accentuation and norm
Character is an individual set of strategies for behavior and emotional response that is characteristic of a particular person. It is obvious that character traits can be expressed in varying degrees. For example, each person in one way or another needs attention, but in some this need is so strong that a person is ready to do anything to be noticed.
When any character traits are expressed significantly more strongly than others, in modern psychological science it is customary to talk about character accentuations. Thus, accentuation is the border zone between norm and pathology. Accentuations are considered an extreme version of the norm.
Accentuation and pathology
But where is the line between accentuation and pathology? If a person, whose difficult character is within the boundaries of the norm, is nevertheless able to adapt to certain situations (for example, at work he does not allow some manifestations that he can quite afford in the family circle), a person with a character pathology is always acts the same under any circumstances.
In addition, psychopathic traits do not change much over time. That is, if certain accentuations can be leveled out as the personality develops, psychopathic manifestations of correction are almost impossible. Thus, if accentuations are capable of delivering certain inconveniences to the person himself and his loved ones, psychopathic traits do not allow a person to adapt in society in principle.
Where does all this come from and what to do?
The character and its characteristics are formed under the influence of two main factors: the influence of genetic data (heredity) and the conditions of upbringing. Moreover, the last factor has a much greater impact. Accentuations often appear in adolescence and weaken as they grow older. But since the presence of accentuation brings a lot of difficulties to a person, it is not always worth expecting that they will pass by themselves. In the work on accentuations, psychotherapy gives good results.
However, it makes sense to warn against self-diagnosis: many factors simultaneously affect a person's behavior, so if yesterday you did not want to be alone at all, today you were hovering over the solution of some issue, and tomorrow you will be overwhelmed by anxiety, you should not rush to diagnose accentuations in yourself. If this causes you inconvenience, do not hesitate to seek support from a specialist.
