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Cluster B Personality Disorders 

Anti Social Personality, Narcissistic Personality, Borderline Personality, Histrionic Personality Disorders 

 

Why Do Certain People Attract Cluster B Personalities? 

Sunlight Portrait

 "HELP Tina! I KEEP ATTRACTING THE SAME TYPE OF PERSON THAT BREAKS ME IN THE END!!!"

 

Lexi, age 27, Austin, Texas 

Even when we can’t generalize, it’s true that certain people attract those that have traits or suffer a disorder of Cluster B. They all have good qualities in order to be considered as suitable for a Cluster B, and also deficiencies that people with a personality disorder can take advantage of.

Remember that even when somehow dysfunctional in relationships, Cluster B individuals can be outstanding in certain aspects. All those that attract Cluster B individuals like ‘fixing’ others, many times because they were not able to fix someone close, or because they consider they had fixed themselves, or because “they have it;” they see the potential on those with problematic presentations and feel inclined to help them become better people.

Each Personality Disorder of Cluster B attracts different people according to their unmet needs:

Those that attract people w/Boderline Personality Disorder

Borderlines are looking for people that can take care of them. So, those who have ways to provide for a ‘lost soul’ and allow others to treat them poorly are good candidates. Therefore, those that are caring, self-sufficient, ‘maternal,’ independent, with low self-esteem, and used to having boundaries crossed or violated will attract pwBPD.

Those that attract w/Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Narcissists need to feel ‘proud’ of their partners in such a way that others admire them for being in a relationship with that person, especially if they can ‘use’ them somehow as accessories or as springboards to reach social hights or a status that they may not be able to reach by themselves. The partner provides social recognition of their grandiosity. So, those that attract narcissists are the ones that feel happy providing what they have so much of and feel that the balance is to be with such a great, intelligent, funny, charming, charismatic, liked person who can show adoration for them (for a while). They have insecurities and may not feel worthy of love; therefore, they accept the ‘exchange’ (and compromise) for whatever love the narcissist gives.

Those that attract w/Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionics need to be the center of attention; therefore, they must be ‘displayed.’ People that are either too shy and wealthy, with very low self-esteem, or very sexual could attract pwHPD since histrionic people are great seducers.

Those that attract w/ Anti Social Personality Disorder

Antisocial people are not attracted to anyone. They only need to find people they can exploit. So, whoever has something of value to give and is gullible, is attractive for pwASPD. Not too much more since psychopaths or sociopaths don’t think too long-term.

Cluster B people have traits of almost all the other personality disorders from the cluster, so the answer could be a mix of what I just described.

 

People who attract Cluster B personalities have lots to offer, but they are needy too. Cluster B people are demanding and selective, not just abusive.
Their partners provide value and accept abuse, whether in the form of co-dependency, trauma bond, or from believing they have a better/bigger heart than they do.

Answered by:

Tiina Rix, LMFT-S

Better Path Family Counseling and Consulting, PLLC 

and

Antonieta Contreras 

Curriculum Chair at Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy

Have you been researching narcissistic personalities or toxic relationship dynamics online and realizing that whatever you have been dealing with daily for the last few months, years, or decades is not normal? Are you beginning to wake up to the fact that you have been horribly, mentally, psychologically, and emotionally abused? Did you grow up in a dysfunctional family where you were the scapegoated child and involuntarily held space for the family's shame and guilt? Are you aware that traditional therapy will not work in your situation because most therapists helping you were not exposed to complex trauma throughout their personal life, so it all sounds like lots of self-inflicted eye-rolling dismissive drama in their ears...they can not relate.. settling on just treating some of your symptoms? Do you feel you've had enough of being an abuse magnet, and life's been turned upside down, plagued by one traumatic event after another?

 

Or are you the abuser, now set out to never be hurt by others again, you sabotage anyone that threatens your carefully crafted mask you created for yourself to make it through the world utterly unscathed day-to-day... anyone who may have seen the mask slip must be annihilated because in your head they are going to do to you what you do to them? Wow, it sounds like lots of dark, demented thinking and behavior we currently accept in all fields of work and areas of life, doesn't it?... "Seek, Kill, and Destroy or they Win, Must Annihilate, Must Smear, Must Destroy...No one Can be Perceived as Better than my Carefully Crafted Mask..." Guess what? We are not interested in playing this sick and twisted game with you, and most have no clue you are even playing it with them.

They were 100% completely caught off guard...It's not healthy... it's diabolic serial soul murdering (death by 1,000,000,000 stabs); too many souls have been defiled, natural gifts and talents shunned into not being developed, ripped apart and shredded people's reputation, ostracized people from normal socializing,  and the cause of most suicides. Narcissistic Abuse, Covert Narcissism, Bullying, Smear Campaigns, Gangstalking, Workplace Mobbing, etc., are typically the reasons behind job loss, homelessness, and most suicides. 

Answered by:

Tiina Rix, LMFT-S

Better Path Family Counseling and Consulting, PLLC 

What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder? (BPD) 

 Surviving Narcissists and Psychopaths Documentary

Interview: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) Symptoms Explained

Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) 

Histrionic Personality Disorder: Impressionistic Speech  

Cluster B Traits (Narcissism, Borderline, Antisocial, Histrionic)

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