Sandra Brown writes:
"Cluster B's behaviors are generated out of a complex interweaving of emotional, developmental, neuro, biochemical, and even genetic abnormalities. Obviously, this is not a ‘simple' disorder or there would be less ‘inevitable harm' associated with everyone and everything they touch and they would be cured or even managed consistently and well.
"This complicated group of disorders single-handedly sets society on edge. It keeps us in court, in therapy, in prayer, in the lawyer's office, in depression, in anxiety, on edge, on the offense, ready to off ourselves to simply be away from such menacing (yet often normal appearing) deviancy.
"Who wreaks more emotional havoc than Cluster B's? 60 million persons in the US alone are negatively impacted by someone else's pathology. It drives people to therapy, to commit their own petty acts of revenge to avenge their own powerlessness, drives people to drink, to run away, to take their children and run, and sadly leads to uncountable amounts of suicides every year...
"...As each system deals with their own view of a specific act the person has done, we miss the wide broad category that these people fall under. We miss the bigger implication of what goes with that category. We miss the fact that those who fall under these pathological disorders have largely low, or no, positive treatment outcomes. Each system dealing with a behavior, only sees the person through their own behavioral specialty. Yet we are all talking about the same disorders in action.
"When we ask ‘WHO does that?' we immediately become brothers and sisters in the same battle against pathology. We begin to see the ‘who' within the act, the disorder that perpetrates these same acts, behaviors, or crimes. It's the same sub-set of disorders that have different focuses but the same outcome: inevitable harm." ~Excerpted from Who Does That?
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Check out other topics addressed by Sandra Brown on her blog
Dealing with a problem partner
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Visit Sandra's website:
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Sandra L. Brown, M.A., CEO of The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction & Public Pathology Education is a psychopathologist, program development specialist, lecturer, and an award-winning author. Her books include Counseling Victims of Violence: A Handbook for Helping Professionals (1991, 2006), How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved Book and Workbook (2005) and Women Who Love Psychopaths (2008).
Sandra is recognized for her pioneering work on women's issues related to relational harm with Cluster B/Axis II disordered partners and specializes in the development of Pathological Love Relationship clinical training and survivor support services. Her books, CD's, DVD's, and other training materials have been used as curriculum in drug rehabs, women's organizations and shelters, women's jail and prison programs, school and college-based programs, inner city projects, and various psychology and sociology programs and distributed in almost every country of the world.
Her collaborative research on Women Who Love Psychopaths was recently presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy as well as the Ruth Ginsberg Lecture Series Women and The Law on Domestic Violence, and Domestic Violence Provider and Batterer Intervention Training in which her unique focus on Pathological Love Relationships has been featured.
Under her direction The Institute has developed a comprehensive on-line psychopathology magazine interviewing some of the country's leading researchers on personality disorders and neurobiology, a Therapist Certification Program in Pathological Love Relationships, a Peer-Support Coaching Program, and a Model of Care Approach for Treatment Centers. The Institute's first hospital inpatient treatment program opened late summer of 2009.
Sandra's previous work included the founding and directing of Bridgework Counseling Center, a multi-faceted mental health treatment center for Trauma Disorders, Treatment of Personality Disorders, and one of the country's first long-term residential programs for women with Dissociative Identity Disorder. She was also a pathologist on a Woman's Trauma Inpatient Hospital Program. She facilitated groups on PTSD and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy as well as individual treatment. Sandra holds a Master's Degree in Counseling. ~Psychology Today
