"Normal" Personality

Rather than rely on the absence of pathology here are several options for describing a healthy or highly functional personality: Criteria of Positive Mental Health.

Michael B. Frisch (1991) offers these 17 areas of life function assessed by his Quality of Life Inventory:

 Health         Realistic self-regard         Having a Philosophy-of-Life
 Work           Recreation                    Learning
 Creativity     Social Service to others      Civic Action
 Love 
 Relationship   Friendships                   Relationships with Children
 Community      Relationships with Relatives  Having a Home
 
 Having a Stable and Adequate Standard of Living  
 Neighbourhood safety, aesthetics, naturalness, people

Freud: "arbeiten und leben": to be able to work and love

From Edward Shoben, (1957)

  1. Awareness, acceptance, and correctness of self concept
  2. Mastery of hte environment and adequacy in meeting life's demands
  3. Integration and unity of personality, whole-hearted pursuit of
     your goals
  4. Autonomy and self-reliance
  5. Perception of reality and social sensitivity
  6. Continued growth toward self actualization

Harold A. Mosak suggests normality means:

  1. Frequency: the common, the usual, normal,
  2. As I think others act: Referential
  3. As a therapists acts: Therapist as referential
  4. Me: Taking oneself on faith
  5. As I used to be: My premorbid condition
  6. Conformity to social rules and norms, the normative:
     Being a good student [ie: no trouble to the educational
     establishment], a good kid [quiet and undemanding],
  7. Mediocrity/mediocre: nothing in excess, the mean
  8. Square, boring, straight, "Dullsville"
  9. Perfection
 10. The absence of symptoms

Source: The Clinician's Thesaurus 3 - The Guide Book for Wording Psychological Reports and Other Evaluations, Third Edition, Revised, Edward L. Zuckerman, Ph. D.

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