Why the Quiet Narcissist Erupts in Rage : Behavioral Reversals in Vector Kinetics a New Formalization of the PDM-3

Psychology lacks a general system in which personality disorders can be described with the same concepts. Vector Kinetics is a newly developed formalization that translates the clinical descriptions of the personality syndromes of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-3) into a unified formula. It works with six basic drives – trust and tranquility, longing and closeness, self-assertion and power, attack and impact, serving and recognition, showing oneself authentically and contact. Each basic drive affected by a disorder is assigned attributes: forced instrument, hidden goal, held-down counter-pole, and blocked basic need. This combination of attributes and basic drives yields formulas that represent the respective disorder form. The formalization claims nothing new about patients. Its formulas are derived from the clinical descriptions and are to be tested against them; its gain is a unified representation. What is new is one theoretical insight: in every formula, each compensation behavior faces a specific, held-down counter-pole. In a number of disorder forms, the behavior tips under stress into precisely this counter-pole, while goal and block are preserved. For this vector anti-complementary reversal, the formalization explains why the long-known clinical switch takes this particular direction. This is shown for the vulnerable narcissist (from neediness to attack), the obsessive-compulsive personality (from serving to attack), and the counterphobic personality (from attack to neediness). Work on the further elaboration for all twelve disorder forms and 20 subtypes is currently in progress.