Oppositional Personality Disorder
Wounded Healers Institute is proposing Oppositional Personality Disorder (OPD) for those who may have what we have identified in our work as missing diagnoses in the DSM and in clinical practice. These missing addictions are perfectionism, altruism, and ambition (O’Brien, 2023a). Our work highlights that addiction is transdiagnostic (O’Brien, 2023a) and that people who are oppositional to change and use the standardization process to protect their status, image, and relationships. They are often treatment resistant to uninformed models of care but we offer another path forward. People and professions with OPD do not see that they are sick because they are addicted to not being addicted and because they benefit from not addressing or making the required and necessary changes. For example, daylight savings and psychedelics.
In our heart of hearts, what we are posting here will help those who have long suspected that psychology was philosophically weak in its basic premise(s). However, we are not against Psychology, as much as we are against the industrialization, standardization, insurancification, and legally mandated bureaucratized methods of applying something that comes from within. We identify this source as Healing, which is a universal process of our biology that is based on endogenous (natural and made in the body) psychedelics. The fact that we can connect the inside and outside psychedelic experience is a marriage that is just waiting to happen once the divorce is finalized. Well, the time is now.
We all need a new branch of “therapy” called Recovery Healing. Therapy is to Religion as Healing is to Spirituality. As a “modern” and revolutionary idea that helped people learn about themselves, their ancestors, and the life and death relationship, Psychology has done its job. But that time has expired with the partial legalization of psychedelics (cannabis is a psychedelic! (O’Brien, 2023b)) because if we do not say and do something about a system that sells its citizens a War on Drugs, War on Terror, non-addictive opiates and cigarettes, chemical imbalances as truths, then we have to question the quality of their truth.
From our perspective, the field of psychology is not ready for them due to other professions’ opposition to change, clinical and historical context, and current level of functioning and reasoning (O’Brien, 2024b; O’Brien, 2024c). “We the People” are ready to do them because we have been training for this day for long enough and are educated enough to have brought receipts. We are coining OPD because this can be applied to both the individual and systems. As a corporation can be a person, so can a profession. The disparity is why we are advocating for a new and separate model of care that supports our interests, our needs, and our hearts.
Don’t get us wrong, the history of Psychology paints the picture of the same madman that human history has taken and we should be very careful,. but if we are all being rigorously honest about our psychological professions, they are missing a few key definitions to be acting so righteous as if psychology professionals knew what they were talking about. If they could not get trauma, dissociation, addiction, healing, and the unconscious correctly defined, why would we expect that they would be on point regarding psychedelics? If we look at current practices with ketamine (some/most clinical practices/businesses), then we know that they are not. For example, they feel that it is appropriate to leave people under the influence of ketamine without a guide or because they believe that it is the medicine that heals and not the relationship to the provider.
What keeps systems with OPD, and the professionals who work for them, is something that we know all too well: addiction. A byproduct of understanding addiction is that one must understand dissociation and trauma. For this, I will refer you to our growing body of work (see below) and trainings because that is where you can have full access to our knowledge base.
And to be fair, OPD is similar to dependent personality disorder, which currently exists in the DSM, but even that is based on the transdiagnostic status of trauma, dissociation, and addiction. Therefore, addiction as a transdiagnostic phenomena means that our diagnostics and treatments are all off.
O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024b). Diagnostic Privilege: Meta-Critical Analysis. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 2. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024c). Meta-Critical Analysis: The “Science” of Pseudoscience. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 3. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024d). Moral-Ethics. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Chapter 14. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/