# The basics of Cluster B personality disorders

Cluster B [personalities](personality.md) represents a large subset of society. The behaviors wildly differ, but come from the same mental basis.

## How they think

The process that builds Cluster B thinking is somewhat straightforward:

1. They have a completely empty sense of self-worth, to the point of feeling deeply unloved and unfulfilled.
   - "I'm worthless."
   - "Nothing I do matters."
   - "Nobody can love me."
   - "I'm only good for what I do."
   - "I'm not good enough."
   - "Everyone hates me."
2. They conclude and closely [identify](identity.md) as a victim of their circumstances.
   - "Life is unfair."
   - "I wasn't taught the right lessons in life."
   - Nobody ever gives me a chance."
3. They way they process the discrepancy of the above two determines how their mind configures the information from early childhood:
   1. Avoidance: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) creates a barrier between the conflicting values. This creates discomposed [images](people-image.md) of identity and self that can manifest as alter egos.
   2. Engagement: Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) concludes they can earn their attention through outward performance. This makes them excessively seek attention and endlessly crave stimulation.
   3. Acceptance: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) disregards others' [rights](people-boundaries.md) in the pursuit of their own. They seek stimulation, but the focus is for inward satisfaction instead of the outward focus of HPD.
   4. Dissatisfaction: [Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)](mind-neurodivergence-clusterb-narcissist.md) feel tremendous [anger](mind-feelings-anger.md) at their situation, but refuse to self-reflect because of their terrible sense of self. [Any other personality can shift to this over time](https://theologos.site/narcissism/).

All of their thoughts mix up other people and thoughts in their mind ("objects" in psychology terms):

- Outside experiences (i.e., other people and what they say or do) are beyond their control.
- Inside thoughts (i.e., memories of others) should be seen as the fully controllable elements of themselves.
- They don't distinguish the two:
  - They'll think their thoughts are others' responsibility.
  - They'll expect they can control others' actions and thoughts.
- Due to this, the severity of their mental illness often comes through how intelligent they are.

## Difficulties due to their mental state

Since they have a shaky value system, they will often have trouble with a few specific things:

- Self-deprecating [humor](humor.md), though possible with HPD. However, HPD will *not* take a practical joke or teasing well.
  - Their humor will often express as unusually dark, and can sometimes be sadistic.
- Admitting failing or [sin](morality-sins.md):
  - BPD will use it to intensify their "shame" states and will typically vacillate between overreaction and completely ignoring it.
  - HPD will often accept failings on the condition that it's shared with others.
  - ASPD will entirely ignore failings, though will often learn from their mistakes.
  - NPD will learn better [image management](people-image-distortion.md) skills from their mistakes, but won't fundamentally change.

## Conflict style

All of them, when pushed to [an unavoidable conflict](people-conflicts-crucial.md), will engage in a 3-step process (DARVO):

1. Deny: Alleges the harm or abuse never took place. This can go as far as gaslighting.
2. Attack: If they suspect the person doesn't buy their denial, they'll directly assault the person they harmed. This can include harming family or friends or using family or friends against that person ("triangulation").
3. Reverse Victim and Offender: If the attack doesn't sufficiently suppress their victim/opponent, they will still feel unsafe. As a safety mechanism, their mind will rearrange their [memories](mind-memory.md) to indicate that *they* were the victim against the offender.

The reversals come in various forms, but tend to be successful in proportion to several factors:

1. How much that attacker can use social stereotypes (e.g., white female is an entitled person, black male is violent, poor person is stupid, etc.). This perpetuates the [lie](people-lying.md)
2. How little information other people have about the other person. This permits the lie to take hold.
3. How effective the attacker can be at hiding further information. This perpetuates the lie.