o_19kdfsn0q18e31dfraas1esh19vta.pdf

definitely related to type. Extraverts, Sensors, Feelers, and Judgers aren't very likely to be
diagnosed with personality disorders in comparison to Introverts, Intuitives, Thinkers, and
Perceivers.
As you've probably noticed, there is one disorder that seems to match type INTJ particularly well:
obsessive compulsive personality disorder, or OCPD (it's actually different from plain ol' OCD).
We'll look at this personality disorder shortly.
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder
Most of us have probably heard of OCD; however, what we are actually going to talk about is
OCPD. The difference is that people with OCD tend to perform repeated rituals such as hand
washing, flicking the light switch on and off three times before going to bed, brushing teeth many
times per day, etc., whereas people with OCPD don't feel the need to repeat rituals over and over.
Rather, they are perfectionistic and meticulously preoccupied with details, procedures, lists, etc.;
driven to work to the exclusion of all else; rigid about rules and principles; tend to hoard items and
money; micromanage, and are generally just stiff and stubborn.
It's fairly obvious why ISTJs (and to a lesser extent, INTJs) could be seen to have this disorder. But
as we've seen throughout this book, many of these symptoms are simply typical ITJ traits. Is it fair
to call OCPD a "disorder"?
Let's pretend that we have a disease called “Spotfang Disorder.” To be diagnosed with this disease,
the patient must exhibit five of the following symptoms—any five.
1. Patient has a beating heart.
2. Patient has persistent cough.
3. Patient has long fingernails.
4. Patient has blue eyes.
5. Patient has purple and pink spots all over skin.
6. Patient has fangs.
7. Patient has brown hair.
There would seem to be some problems with the operational definition of this disease, wouldn't
there? Particularly, there are many healthy people with brown hair, blue eyes, long fingernails, and
a beating heart. But not all patients cough—unless they've been chain smoking for twenty years or
have a cold. And very few patients have purple and pink spots and fangs.
The problem with our definition of Spotfang disorder is that it creates a situation in which many
healthy people can be diagnosed with this disease even if they do not actually have spots or fangs.
5 out of the 7 symptoms required for a diagnosis could conceivably be possessed by an ordinary
person, and this meets the definition of the disease. Even ordinary INTJs possess a lot of the
symptoms of OCPD; indeed, in many cases it isn't a bug so much as a feature.
It should be noted that the researchers who did this study used the “dimensional” approach rather
than the “categorical” approach. The categorical approach takes the view that one is either mentally
ill or one isn't. Even if a person exhibits many symptoms of a mental illness, but does not meet the
exact definition (say a person falls one symptom short) then that person is considered to be mentally
sound. Either you are over the line or you are behind the line; there is no middle ground.
By contrast, the dimensional approach takes the view that mental illness exists on a spectrum, i.e. a