Field Development Accomplishments and Contributions
Field Development Accomplishments and Contributions Field Development Work 1980s-1990s Founded a Personality Disorder Program and created a dual-focus track for partners and children of Personality Disorders Began data collections and mapping of relational dynamics identified as ‘Pathological Relationships’ (today called Narcissistic and Psychopathic Abuse) Worked on re-development of inpatient Women’s Trauma/Women’s Personality Disorder Inpatient unit, […]
Research on Survivors of Psychopaths
Call for Participants: Research on Survivors of Psychopaths Sandra is serving as Advisor Consultant for a new study being conducted by Jayne Dales-Tibbott, doctoral researcher at Metanoia Institute and Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. Dales-Tibbott is now seeking participants for her qualitative research entitled: The long road back to self. An exploration of the lived experience […]
Personality Profiles of Women in Relationships Involving Men with Pathological Personality Features
Personality Profiles of Women in Relationships Involving Men with Pathological Personality Features Authors and Contributors Katherine Lucas (0000-0002-6262-5933) Susan C. South (0000-0003-0341-7074) Sandra Brown Jennifer Young Douglas B. Samuel (0000-0003-3592-1523) Department of Psychology, Purdue University The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction Author’s Notes Katherine Lucas is now at the Department of Psychology at the University […]
Why Cognitive Dissonance is So Traumatic for Survivors of Pathological Love Relationships
Why Cognitive Dissonance is So Traumatic for Survivors of Pathological Love Relationships by Kristen Milstead, Ph.D. | October 3, 2021 In the 1950s, social psychologist Leon Festinger studied a group of people in a cult who were convinced an apocalypse was looming, and that UFOs were going to visit from planet Clarion and take the […]
History of the Field
The History of the Narcissistic & Psychopathic Abuse and Relationship Field Copyright © 2019 by Sandra L. Brown, MA, The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ” ― Michael Crichton In an interview, I was […]
Identifying PLRs: Introduction
Four Key Elements To Identifying a Pathological Love Relationship: A Teaching Series on PLRs Article One: Introduction Copyright (c) 2016-2019 by Sandra Brown, M.A. Research guides understanding. Until cross-sectional findings, studies, and research on Pathological Love Relationships, the dynamics of these relationships fell predominantly under descriptors like domestic violence/abusive, dysfunctional, codependent, or addictive. These broad […]
The Undetected Victim
The Undetected Victim Introduction: The Undetected Victim A Skewed Fascination with Pathology The world’s interest seems to be about extremes–the worst anything…mass tragedies, political messes, or outrageous celebrity behavior. So, it’s hard to imagine that something like the private underworld of the personal lives of the most extreme humans, representing the most extreme danger, has […]
Understanding the Personality Science and Trait Elevations of Survivors
Understanding the Personality Science and Trait Elevations of Survivors Other factors have contributed to the mis-, dis-, and non-identification of Pathological Love Relationships and atypical trauma related to theoretical assumptions commonly assigned to these survivors related to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) theories and stereotypical victim profiles. In the article on this website, ‘The Unidentified Victim,’ […]
Understanding the Traumatic Injurious Aftermath
Understanding the Traumatic Injurious Aftermath The survivors call it ‘aftermath’ – or more accurately ‘after wrath’ – the specific presentation of their unique trauma injury. As the President of the Association and CEO of The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction, I have been engaged in trauma treatment of survivors for over 30 years. Other Board […]
Understanding Relationship Theory
Understanding Relationship Theory (See our page, The Undetected Victim, for a detailed discussion of mis, dis, and non-identification of the victims and partner pathology). What has been absent in this new emerging genre of counseling psychology regarding NPD/Anti-Social/Psychopathy survivor treatment, is a cohesive theory about how these relationship dynamics are different and why. The Institute’s history […]