In this episode of The Personality Couch Podcast, we (licensed clinical psychologists Doc Bok and Doc Fish) continue our discussion about paranoid personality disorder, exploring its three severity levels: Mild, Borderline, and Paraphrenic. We unpack the six subtypes of paranoid personalities as outlined by Dr. Theodore Millon: The Self-Righteous Mistrustful, The Obdurate Mistrustful, the Querulous Paranoid, the Insular Paranoid, the severe Fanatic Paraphrenic, and Malignant Paraphrenic. We highlight the fragility of Paranoids at all levels of severity, noting they can easily deteriorate with stressors and setbacks. We emphasize the importance of understanding these very common personality dynamics in all settings, especially with increasing paranoia in the post-pandemic world.

Are you a clinician stuck on a case? To schedule a consultation, please visit the practice website, which will guide you to the email address to use. www.questpsych.org

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Paranoid Personality Disorder

03:44 Paranoid Personality Disorder Symptoms

06:03 Historical Examples

    06:09 Timothy McVeigh - Oklahoma City Bombings

    06:36 Richard Farley - Erotomania

07:52 Explaining the 3 Severity Levels

09:30 Mild Paranoid Personalities: Mistrustful Types

10:16 Self-Righteous Subtype

14:28 Obdurate Subtype

17:14 Moderate Paranoid Personalities: Disorder Level

    17:44 Querulous Subtype

    21:32 Insular Subtype

23:52 Severe Paranoid Personalities: Paraphrenic Level

    25:44 Fanatic Subtype

    30:57 Malignant Subtype

36:12 Summary & Conclusion