I recently received a note from a woman we’ll call “Dorothy” who found various blog posts I’ve written on disturbed characters helpful to her as she tried to understand a destructive relationship.  She wrote:

Dear Dr.Simon,

Thank you for your blog articles on Disturbed Characters. I just got out of a relationship with someone who I believe to have a character disorder. Often he would play the victim in everything that had happened to him (even when something that happened was clearly his fault). He was very manipulative, and aggressive at times as well. When we first started dating, I misinterpreted everything he did, thinking that he was really the victim of many unfortunate events, I would almost pity him, and the things that happened to him. My family noticed a change in me, and only put up with him because they knew I loved him, and we were engaged to be married next year. I would often be blamed for the things he did, whether it meant he got too aggressive and hurt me (he would blame it on the fact that I might take a stance that “looked like” I was about to attack him).  Inevitably it would end up being my fault for all of his short comings and problems. Although I can not completely understand some of this, I can relate to it, finding certain things in his behavior which lead for me to look up these series of articles. A lot of the things mentioned in these articles fits him very well. I am just glad to know that it wasn’t me causing all of his problems, and it wasn’t entirely my fault for the downfall of our relationship.

Again, thanks for the blog posts.  I’m looking forward to the release of your new book.

Dorothy’s comments are typical of emails and notes I receive every week.  It heartens me to know that the material I’ve been posting is helpful to people trying to understand the disturbed characters in their lives.

I’ll continue to post articles addressing various issues related to character disturbance.  I’m also pleased to announce that after many unavoidable delays, Parkhurst Brothers Publishers will be putting my new book Character Disturbance into wide release in July of this year.  This book is the culmination of many years of dealing with the many different personalities whose character defects are so pronounced that they bring misery, pain, and hardship into the lives of many.  Naturally, I will continue to post articles on all my blogs.  These blog posts will complement my new book Character Disturbance and help you deal with the disturbed characters in your lives.