The definitions below are psychological definitions. Standard definitions make differ. For instance, the standard definition of enable (as posted in Dictionary.com) is: "to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to; authorize:". This is something positive. However, when used in psychology, the word enable is used to describe a behavior which is dysfunctional and often harmful: to help someone do something they are or should be capable of doing for themselves. The definitions below are psychological.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) - a mental condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others. Commonly referred to as psychopathy or sociopathy. People with this disorder may be referred to as psychopaths or sociopaths by the public.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning.
Cluster B Personality Disorders - the four personality disorders; antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic. The personality disorders in this cluster are characterized by the following traits; dramatic, overly emotional, unpredictable thinking or behavior, emotional manipulation, lack of empathy, lack of remorse
Desensitization - Desensitization is a technique used with anxious or phobic clients which slowly exposes them to the thing which they fear until the panic response is lessened or eliminated.
Example: A client is so afraid of cockroaches he becomes unable to stay in his home for fear of encountering one. In therapy, he would slowly have a cockroach brought closer and closer until he becomes able to hold one in his hand without fear, panic or revulsion. He is desensitized to having a cockroach near him. This technique is frequently used with phobias of bugs, fear of elevators, fear of flying, etc.
Dual Diagnosis - When someone struggles with substance abuse and mental health issues at the same time.
Enabling - Helping someone do something they are or should be capable of doing or themselves. It is often used to describe the behavior of one person which allows another person's dysfunctional behavior to continue.
Example 1:
A husband calls his wife's employer and covers up her hangover so she can maintain her job. This "enables" her to continue her alcoholism.
Example 2:
A client repeatedly has their utilities cut off because they use their income to bail their boyfriend out of jail rather than pay their own bills. A social worker who repeatedly helps the client find resources to pay the unpaid utilities to avoid them being cut off prevents the client from experiencing the consequences of their choices - having no electricity. This is enabling the client's continued pattern of putting the boyfriend's needs ahead of her own.
Fleas - from the adage, "Lie down with dogs and you get up with fleas." This term is used in the cluster B survivor community to describe the phenomenon of learning the behaviors of people with cluster B disorders as a result of being raised by them. It is applied to people without a cluster B disorder who, as a result of being raised by them, manifests some of their behaviors.
Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) - characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking emotions, usually beginning in early adulthood, including inappropriately seductive behavior and an excessive need for approval.
A term used in a clinical setting to describe the person in a dysfunctional family who has been subconsciously selected to act out the family's inner conflicts in order to keep attention focused on an element that lies outside of the core conflict. The identified patient, also called the "IP", or the "symptom-bearer", may display unexplainable emotional , behavioral or physical symptoms, and is often the first person to seek help, often at the request of the family.
1) Gets scapegoated and blamed for a family's problems
2) Has emotional problems that are not a mental illness, but a normal response to the stress of dealing with an unhealthy family in denial
3) Exposes the dysfunctional family's problems
The phrase originated because family therapists recognized that the child "identified" as the patient is not necessarily the one who is sick.
Infantilizing - to reduce to or keep in an infantile state. Treating an adult like a child. Treating an older child younger than they are. This is dysfunctional because it keeps the adult or child in a dependent position with the person who is infantilizing them.
Example 1:
A parent continues to tie a child's shoes long after they have reached the age where they should do it themselves.
A client needs to sign up for mental health services. A caseworker puts them in the car (rather than letting them ride the bus or learn the bus system), takes them down to the mental health program, checks them in and proceeds to tell the caseworker there about the symptoms the client is having. The client has no physical or cognitive impairments which prevent them from doing this for themselves.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) - people with this disorder have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others.
Psychopath - a common term for antisocial personality disorder (APD)
Sociopath - a common term for antisocial personality disorder (APD)
Transference- the relocation of affect, transferring feelings from one person to another, taking feelings from one place in our lives and experiencing them in another. Transference of feelings for a parent to another is most common.
Example 1:
John has deep seated resentments for his new boss, Tyrone, but can't really understand why. Tyrone is tough, but fair and treats everyone with respect. Only when John realizes that Tyrone is also somewhat authoritarian in his management style does John realize that Tyrone reminds him of his authoritarian father. John has transferred his resentment of his father to Tyrone.