Asking because not only did I suspect my (now former) boss to be like that, there was also a massive meltdown in a specific content creation space where an otherwise extremely kind CC was exposed as… being a bit special. So I thought I should try to get better at spotting ppl like that in order to not burn myself
Edit: Thanks everyone. I guess I didn’t word it correctly but my goal wasn’t to “diagnose” someone. I’m Autistic & am working in a field that allegedly attracts lots of hyper-competitive/toxic ppl, so I want to protect myself. That’s why. I already saw tons of useful comments so
That’s where medical and psychological diagnoses are different. Diabetes has biological markers that we can measure, and DSM disorders mostly* rely on matching behavior patterns to predetermined labels. One clinician might call it narcissistic personality disorder, and another might call it a fear-driven obsession with social acceptance. Which one is correct?
A major issue with the “mental health industrial complex” is that it quickly becomes tautological while appearing objective and empirical. What do we call someone who can’t empathize with others and constantly seeks admiration? NPD. What is NPD? It’s when someone can’t empathize with others and constantly seeks admiration.
I could make up a diagnosis of “greeting disorder” for people who feel compelled to smile and make eye contact when they meet someone. Then I could insist that people who meet these criteria “have” this disorder, but how is that useful?
*I say “mostly” because recent editions of the DSM include, for some reason, diagnoses like narcolepsy which can’t be diagnosed by psychological evaluation, but they can be diagnosed by medical testing.
I don’t disagree with any of this, but I still feel this post is a bad idea and a ton of randos online trying to oblige the request makes it even worse. This isn’t someone getting armed with information, whether we feel the insistence that diagnoses by professionals are a form of gatekeeping or not. This is someone getting opinions to act on from random people in an attempt to faux-diagnose someone they don’t even really know. This isn’t remotely an evidence-based exercise. This is a bad idea. Frankly I can’t be convinced otherwise on that.