Hysteroid and demonstrative behavior

Author — A.P. Egides. The book «How to understand people, or the Psychological drawing of personality»

Do the bloody spots appear on the hands and feet of Christ’s brides, does he sing a song after the death of Ophelia’s father, do the legs of the first famous psychoanalytic patient of Drs. Breuer and Freud give way, does an abandoned wife swallow a handful of sleeping pills in front of everyone, does she change into a woman’s clothes? stage celebrity Boris Moiseev, whether a provincial beauty says to her husband the usual “you don’t love me” — all this, despite visible differences, is united by this very total demonstrativeness.

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What is demonstrativeness? And this is what … I put my personality in the center of attention of others, as if I admire it myself and demonstrate my positive, and even negative features to everyone around me. I constantly seek attention — every second, every minute, hourly, daily … Attention should be total. Total! And everyone else deserves less attention and even if they do not try to compete with me.

Efforts to obtain such attention can vary. If they are within reason — dress with taste, throw a flirtatious look, order a beautiful business card — then we are dealing with a hysterical personality pattern. If they are more sophisticated — a woman with a beautiful head shape shaves her «under Kotovsky», instead of the books needed for classes, expensive cosmetics are purchased, etc. — this is an accentuation. Well, when, in the absence of a result from effects approved by society, shock means are used (topless in the subway or ask a passerby for a condom) — psychopathy-psychopathy …

In Ancient Greece — the cradle of European civilization — the previously unknown Herostratus immediately «famous» for setting fire to the temple of Artemis only out of a desire to become famous thanks to this stupid mockery of the work of other Greeks. Psychopath Psychopathovich …

Whatever the hysteroid does, whatever actions he does, it is important for him not so much their content as whether they can attract attention. He is constantly trying to impress and revels in his impressions of the impression he has made. He is always at the forefront, and all people are spectators for him. And if they are not, he is both an actor and a spectator for himself. For him, «the whole world is a theater.» The hysteroid is looking for success with the largest possible number of people for a given moment, no matter what. And he can attract some people even by the fact that it’s not very acceptable for a more demanding taste: he will flash with an outfit that is far from brilliant, but only brilliant, with or without reason he throws a “laughing” picked up from someone, walks with nipple in your mouth through your favorite city … Emotions are not in yourself, but for the whole world. Let them eavesdrop on her moaning in orgasm and swearing her love in a hot whisper, let them broadcast it on the radio … or on the Internet. But there is no need to eavesdrop: in orgasm, she often does not whisper, but screams so loudly and sweetly that this cry of the soul breaks five floors down and five floors up. The hysteroid even shows shyness in such a way as to attract attention.

The hysteroid is always concerned that they think well of him, and not badly, while it is not too important for him whether he did a good deed or not, the main thing is to be noted. And even every «Herostratus» wants something remarkable to be seen in his negative act: here he is walking along Tverskaya and boldly yelling criminal songs. Someone calls on the phone, and the hysteroid screams at home so that on the other end of the wire you can hear: «I’m not at home.» Read: I don’t need you, I have more important things to do … In this sense, the hysteroid is the exact opposite of the psychasthenoid, who thinks all the time about what kind of act he did, good or bad, and, maybe, how is everything — still think about it. The hysteroid will not bypass the pit in public, it may not wash its hands after the toilet, but in public it will jump over the pit and wash its hands with Safeguard soap. Let’s compare: hyperthym will jump over the pit and alone, and will not wash his hands even in public.

An hysteroid can also be engaged in philosophy or psychology, but at the same time, oh, look, I’m a philosopher, oh, look, I’m a psychologist. The hysteroid can even be called purposeful. His goal is to win the attention of others. Not everything is so simple, sometimes he does not immediately manage to focus Attention on himself, sometimes it costs a lot of effort: you have to rehearse a speech, memorize poems, deny yourself food in order to buy a dress with branded labels. That is, the hysteroid, to some extent, in its purposefulness, keeps the program in the memory of the will and is prone to not very big, but still significant efforts to implement this program. But if we talk about the content of his aspirations, then they change, he quickly lights up with various ideas that are spread by the paranoid, but also cools down just as quickly.

Here is a hysteroid with liveliness painting, bought paints, canvases, sketchbooks, and two weeks later went headlong into religion.

And in this sense, we can say that hysteroids rush from program to program.

The purposefulness of the hysteroid in terms of total demonstrativeness, as well as the purposefulness of the paranoid, also eats up a lot in its path — most often the right of other people to receive at least a fraction of attention. The hysteroid pulls the blanket of attention on itself all the time.

Let’s not confuse a hysteroid with a hysteric (recall: an epileptoid is not an epileptic, and a paranoiac is not paranoid). Of course, the hysterical, or hysterical (sometimes they still say so), character is the basis for hysterical neuroses and psychoses. But it is important that in itself it is a variant of the norm — specific and, in general, extremely interesting. After all, all literature, all stage life and even all domestic life — well, everything just sprouted roots from this root “hyster-”.