Following on from our work on neighborhood relations we are happy to reproduce this story reported by the BBC today. It says that research into personality disorders tells us that as many as 1 in 20 people may have a personality disorder, gained as a result of family stress during pregnancy or in our early years.
We welcome the study, published in the British journal of psychiatry for the following reasons:
- Its supports our view that approaching neighbours with problems and issues is a risk to be avoided, because their response may be unpredictable.
- It is easy to assume that all neighbours have a desire to get on with each other. Some policies concerning neighbours, planning and policing for example make that assumption, and some warn against approaching neighbours.
- While there are many types of personality disorders, responsible for many types of common behaviour, some ( a “dark triad”) are characterised by dark personality traits.
- Blaming the victim when a toxic relationship materialises, “for not getting on with their neighbours” is common practice but simply not appropriate, and yet this attitude is prevalent among police officers and council workers, for example.
- Airing an issue, or indeed sharing information with a toxic neighbour can lead to crime, conflict and victimisation where support is minimal due to lack of understanding.
Source: Stress in pregnancy ‘makes child personality disorder more likely’ – BBC News