​What Would Happen If The Groups Suffered From Personality Disorders?

We are social beings, so it is impossible to ignore the role of groups in our lives. Whether they belong to groups, such as the family, or reference groups, such as an urban tribe, we are always in direct relationship with some type of group. This fact, added to the gestalt principle of “the whole is more than the sum of the parts”, justifies the group as a unit of analysis and the theoretical-practical paradigm of Group Psychology.

What would happen if a group of people suffered from a personality disorder?

Understanding the group as greater than the sum of its members implies that The group cannot be understood as an extrapolation of the individual behaviors of the people who make it up. It cannot even be ruled that the same person develops the same processes individually and as a group; and hence the therapeutic role of groups.

Now, if they can be therapeutic, can pathological groups also be configured? With this question in the air, let’s take a group view and see what traits the groups could have if they became ill. Who knows… could we be part of some pathological group?

You may be interested in: “Personality disorders: myths and realities”

1. Paranoid Group

The paranoia It appears when delusions lead to a distortion of reality and distrust. In a group view, translates as a group with a deficit of feedback both intra- and intergroup. By this we mean that feedback is not offered to the outside, nor among the members themselves.

Therefore, the group develops a large number of inferences by not contrasting the information, does not express its interpretation and does not know if it is correct. This makes the group distrustful, source of rumors and multiple versions of the same fact either. They are stuck in a phase of creating norms and trust, constantly testing the opinion and commitment of their members in order to say “yes, that’s how things are” and gain security.

2. Schizoid Group

One may think that a person schizoid He cannot integrate a group, due to his indifference towards social relations. Now, let’s look at groups and observe a schizoid “group.”

This isolation would be manifested at the group level by a rigid and impermeable membrane. The group membrane is the structural element that helps define the group’s boundaries and regulate its communication with the outside world. In this way, as it gains rigidity, the interaction of the group with its environment is prevented. In this case the effects are bidirectional; Not only is information not emitted from the group as in the paranoid, but it is not received either.

3. Schizotypal Group

Surely you have ever been in a group where, faced with a meaningless phrase, everyone has laughed out loud and asked yourself “what is happening here?” It is one of the forms of expression of group culture, of how the group evolves over time, gaining consistency as a particular entity through norms, forms of relationships, roles, themes, etc.; characteristics.

It could be understood as the group’s own reality. Nevertheless, If this reality becomes complex and begins to differ from the outgroup reality – outside the group -, we find ourselves in a schizotypal group. with a distortion of reality; a group that has no way to understand it because it seems that they do not speak our language.

4. Antisocial Group

One of the reasons for forming groups is the search for security; the group as a lifesaver. Have the opportunity to gain trust with a number of people provides us with a safe environment in which to interact. To do this, it is necessary to create group norms, whether explicit – expressed verbally – or implicit – those that are not said but everyone knows.

However, antisocial disorder has certain problems with norms, and in antisocial groups specifically with the norms of intergroup interaction. At the same time that the group establishes intragroup norms to ensure its relationship, it also establishes them intergroup, to ensure how to interact with the environment. If the latter fail, we find a group that violates the integrity of others, that does not respect the group membrane of other groups and with dysfunctional forms of outgroup relationships.

5. Limit Group

Borderline disorder is one of the most complex at an individual level and also in its group development. A boundary group is a group with a group activity focused on the emotional level. It is a group that does not manage and only expresses, so it is characterized by having no space for reflection and only for action.

This leads to impulsive relationships arising from the emotional climate of the group at that time, which are very dysfunctional intergroup since They do not take into account semantics or communicative pragmatics. That is, they neither control what they express nor how they express it, and they do not worry about what to do with the bomb they have just dropped, leading them to self-destructive relationships with the environment and with the group itself.

6. Narcissistic Group

The phrase of narcissism explains that success is everything: “the end justifies the means.” For this reason, the narcissistic group is a totally task-oriented group, but The goal is neither productivity nor performance, but rather the status achieved by performing the task.

They are groups that live in a continuous relationship of competitiveness, since their group identity is based on the completion of the task and social comparison with other groups. Wow, if I achieve all my goals and then compare myself to those who have not, I will evaluate myself positively. Many of you may have remembered some work groups in studies or in the work sector, those of which one thinks “how easy it is for them to step on heads.”

7. Histrionic Group

To the histrionic too he loves to be the center of attention but in this case on an emotional level. This fact already characterizes histrionic groups, their socio-emotional orientation. If you give histrionic groups a task to perform, do not expect to see it completed, since they will get stuck in expressing the emotions that this task awakens in them.

That’s just another dysfunction, a continuous emotional expression, but without management, because attention would end if emotional conflicts were resolved. In this case, the emotional climate is once again key, the central theme of intra- and intergroup relationships, as well as recreating conflicts without putting an end to them.

8. Avoidant Group

This type of group is similar to the schizoid in that it does not maintain outgroup relationships. This is explained by the fact that at the individual level, Avoidant disorder is characterized by social withdrawal due to fear of rejection. Understanding it at the group level, the group anticipates negative intergroup interactions, so its membrane is rigid and impermeable.

However, all its interest lies in these interactions with other groups even though it does not have them, characterizing its internal relationships by communication with intergroup themes. The fact that they talk about something they don’t know implies that distort their knowledge and reality of other groups. In this way they live in a constant social comparison between what “we are” and what “they are”, from which they form their structure. Some groups may resonate with you that, once in them, only talked about another group!

9. Dependent Group

These groups could be confused with subgroups, since they always need to alienate other groups. The dependent group is characterized by subordination to other groups and for intergroup communication with a feedback not realistic. Subordination comes from not having clear or excessively delegative leadership, which does not assume responsibilities and leaves the group without premises to follow.

In this context, group processes are delegated to other groups, such as task management or decision making. In addition, there is a need to stay connected with the other group, so feedback is not established, much less if it is negative. That is, the group can subordinate itself to another group that may be leading it to ruin and not say anything; I keep quiet about the collision with the iceberg and the sinking Titanic!

10. Obsessive-Compulsive Group

If something characterizes obsessive-compulsive disorder, it is cognitive rigidity in guidelines and compulsion to behaviors. Now, with a group vision, that rigidity is transferred to the structure of the group. OCD groups would be those with a large number of rigid rules, both prescriptive – what should be done – and proscriptive – what should not be done.

As long as they are transgressed, they will have serious sanctions, with a considerable reduction in status. Likewise, they also have rigidity in roles, delimiting what position and what function each member fulfills. Therefore, they are groups in which the socialization of new members is difficult and in which structural rigidity also regulates inflexible forms of intergroup relations.

Conclusions and nuances

The previous classification It is not diagnostic for groups but it can serve to take into account how structural and procedural alterations can cause group dysfunctions.

Notice when the rules of the work group become strict, how in the family the main issue is other families or how conflicts that arise are talked about and managed with friends, but without a clear intention to solve them. This is how you can see that a group can be pathological. see that the group itself has personality and, ultimately, bring that group view closer.

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