April 29, 2022 – Amid all the eye this month to actor Johnny Depp’s $50 million lawsuit towards ex-wife Amber Heard, a psychological time period has entered the general public’s lexicon: histrionic persona dysfunction.
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 court docket in the course of the testimony of Shannon Curry, PsyD, a scientific and forensic psychologist in California and Hawaii, who carried out a psychological analysis of Heard and mentioned that she met with Heard for 12 hours.
Curry testified that Heard has each borderline persona dysfunction and histrionic persona dysfunction. Heard has mentioned she has posttraumatic stress dysfunction.
Resulting from her situation, Heard could be very involved with picture, susceptible to cruelty and blaming others, and unable to confess duty for doing one thing unsuitable, Curry testified, as reported in Newsweek.
So what precisely is histrionic persona dysfunction, and the way does it differ from the opposite, better-known persona issues, reminiscent of paranoid, narcissistic, or obsessive-compulsive?
Histrionic persona dysfunction – histrionic means overly theatrical or melodramatic – tends to be extra frequent in ladies, could be discovered 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 need to be seen.”
Histrionic persona dysfunction is way much less generally recognized than narcissistic or borderline persona dysfunction, says Jessica January Behr, PsyD, a licensed psychologist in New York Metropolis.
“The factors for the dysfunction might be way more generally seen than recognized,” she says. “To diagnose somebody with histrionic persona dysfunction, an individual has to fulfill 5 out of 9 very particular standards.”
These 9 standards embody being uncomfortable until you’re the focus, your feelings shifting quickly, appearing very dramatically – as if performing earlier than an viewers – with exaggerated feelings and expressions but showing to lack sincerity, and always in search of reassurance or approval, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
Finally, this dysfunction is a severe one, and the label shouldn’t be used until a psychological well being skilled who has evaluated you and carried out sure diagnostic checks confirms it.
For remedy, 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 be taught to narrate to others in a extra constructive approach.
A well being care skilled may additionally prescribe remedy to deal with the melancholy and nervousness that always include this dysfunction, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s good that persons are studying about this psychological time period, nevertheless it’s essential to keep away from making an armchair analysis,” Behr says. “We additionally need to watch out to not conflate ‘dramatic’ and ‘histrionic.’ To have histrionic persona dysfunction requires sure standards to be met, and this isn’t a time period for use calmly.”