Nearly all human traits lie on continuums. Even many multi-trait conditions can be viewed as having distinct traits that each lie at one end of a spectrum. There are a number of cases where we only have a word for one side of a psychological spectrum, and we lack a word for what you’d be like if you inverted all the most common traits of a condition. Here’s an attempt to give names to these opposites:
[Note: I’ve updated this post based on some feedback in the comments I received when I first wrote it.]
1. ADHD ↔ Focused Temperament
Since a core aspect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) involves difficulty regulating focus, which may manifest as challenges in choosing what to focus on, and may involve hyper-focusing on a particular thing without feeling there’s a choice, an aspect of Focused Temperament would be finding it easy to focus on whatever you choose, and finding it easy to focus with whatever degree of intensity you choose.
Since restlessness and fidgeting are other common symptoms of ADHD, Focused Temperament would involve finding it easy to still while doing nothing.
2. Schizophrenia ↔ Grounded Temperament
Since a core aspect of schizophrenia is seeing connections between things that aren’t really connected, an aspect of Grounded Temperament would be avoiding such false positives, but also failing to see hard-to-spot connections between things that really are connected. Since it’s common for schizophrenia to involve paranoia, Grounded Temperament would involve an absence of conspiratorial thinking and a tendency not to impute negative motives.
3. Imposter Syndrome ↔ Poster Syndrome
Since a core aspect of Imposter Syndrome is the belief that others see you as more capable than you really are, an aspect of Poster Syndrome would be a belief that others see you as less capable than you really are.
4. Autism Spectrum ↔ Social Savantism
Since a common aspect of being on the Autism Spectrum is having trouble spotting or interpreting subtle social cues, an aspect of Social Savantism would be an unusually strong ability to process and make accurate inferences from all subtle social information in interactions and to respond so as to produce the exact impression intended.
5. Borderline Personality ↔ Unreactive Personality
Since some of the major aspects of Borderline Personality are a high intensity and variability of emotion, an aspect of Unreactive Personality would be having dulled emotion with little fluctuation. Other aspects of Borderline Personality are a lack of sense of self/core identity, along with a strong attachment to others to root one’s identity to, so Unreactive Personality would involve a stable sense of self with unusually low attachment to others.
6. Sociopathy ↔ Selfless Personality
Since major aspects of sociopathy are a lack of (or greatly diminished capacity for) compassion and empathy, an aspect of Selfless Personality would involve extremely intense empathy and compassion, with these emotions driving an unusually large amount of the person’s actions.
And as a bonus, here’s one by John Nerst:
7. Nerd ↔ Wamb
Nerst describes a Wamb like this:
“Wamb is a vernacular label, not a scientific one, but it’s usually earned by a love for activities that are social and physical rather than intellectual — football, dancing, or socializing rather than learning, building things, or playing games. The leisure activities we associate with wambs — team sports, gossiping and partying — all depend on primal instincts like competition, alliance building, and mating, and tend not to involve intellectually complex exchange with others or the physical world.”
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This piece was first written on January 7, 2023, and first appeared on this site on January 28, 2023.
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