About the Author

After qualifying from Sheffield University Medical School in

1952, he held hospital posts in Paediatrics and Orthopaedics.
A brief spell of service in the Royal Army Medical Corps was
followed by general practice in Coventry.
As a single handed G.P. for twenty five years, he used
hypnosis for a wide variety of problems. He was also in charge
of a school for emotionally disturbed children during this time,
developing innovatory techniques in group hypnosis settings.
Since 1971 he has lectured for the British Society of Medical
and Dental Hypnosis. In 1976 the Swedish Society for
Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis invited him to
demonstrate his techniques with children. Ever since, his
workshops and lectures have formed part of their three-year
training programme in hypnosis for psychiatrists and
psychologists.
In 1981 the B.B.C. invited him to take part in their television
documentary Hypnosis and Healing and again in 1984 in
Alternative Medicine.
In June 1982 he completed 350 hours training in short-term
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy under the personal supervision
of Prof. Lewis Wolberg M.D. and Prof. Arlene Wolberg Ph.
D. of the Postgraduate Centre for Mental Health, University of
New York. Since then he has been in full-time private practice
in psychotherapy.

He was co-chairperson with Gordon Ambrose, Gail Gardner

and Karen Olness in the Paediatric workshop at the 9th
International Congress in Hypnosis and Psychosomatic
Medicine held in Glasgow in 1983, and was workshop
chairperson at the 2nd, 3rd, and the 6th European congresses
in subsequent years.
In 1986 he was invited to be the keynote speaker on hypnosis
at the Canada West Medical Congress, and in the same year he
obtained a Master Practitioners Certificate in Neurolinguistic
Programming (NLP). Since then he has been conducting NLP
seminars in Scandinavia and the U.K. with particular emphasis
on its application in psychotherapy and education.
He has published several articles on hypnosis, its neurological
aspects and clinical applications; and NLP. In 1988 he evolved
a new model of Personality Disorder Traumatic Separation
Theory and has been teaching its application in short-term
dynamic psychotherapy, in Sweden, Denmark and South
Africa.
On 23 September 1994 in Gotenburg Sweden, he was awarded
The Annie Fasth Foundation Prize for his development of
Traumatic Separation Theory and researching its clinical
applications.
He is a member of the British Society of Experimental and
Clinical Hypnosis; and has been awarded honorary
memberships of the Swedish Society of Experimental and
Clinical Hypnosis, and the Danish Society of Medical
Hypnosis in recognition of his teaching. And the South
African Society of Clinical Hypnosis has presented him with
their Certificate of Tribute.

To Ben Turan Fasth

Copyright Don W. Ebrahim (2015)

The right of Don W. Ebrahim to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the
British Library.

ISBN 9781784557119 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781784557133 (Hardback)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

Printed and bound in Great Britain

This paper is about Personality Disorder (PD). The

following description is reprinted with permission
from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, Fourth Edition, Copyright 1994 American
Psychiatric Association.
A Personality Disorder is an enduring pattern
of inner experience and behaviour that deviates
markedly from the expectations of the individual's
culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in
adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time,
and leads to distress or impairment.
Paranoid Personality Disorder is a pattern of
distrust and suspiciousness such that others' motives
are interpreted as malevolent.
Schizoid Personality Disorder is a pattern of
detachment from social relationships and a restricted
range of emotional expression.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder is a pattern of
acute discomfort in close relationships, cognitive or
perceptual distortions, and eccentricities of behaviour.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a pattern of

disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Borderline Personality Disorder is a pattern of
instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image,
and affects, and marked impulsivity.
Histrionic Personality Disorder is a pattern of
excessive emotionality and attention seeking.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a pattern of
grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of
empathy.
Avoidant Personality Disorder is a pattern of
social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and
hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.
Dependent Personality Disorder is a pattern of
submissive and clinging behaviour related to an
excessive need to be taken care of.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is
a pattern of preoccupation with orderliness,
perfectionism, and control.
Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified
is a category provided for two situations: 1) the
individual's personality pattern meets the general
criteria for a Personality Disorder and traits of several
different Personality Disorders are present, but the
criteria for any specific Personality Disorder are not
met; or 2) the individual's personality pattern meets
10

the general criteria for a Personality Disorder, but the

individual is considered to have a Personality
Disorder that is not included in the Classification
(e.g., passive-aggressive personality disorder).

11

Abstract
Problem: - Traditional psychodynamic concepts
impede intelligible interpretations of Personality
Disorder (PD). Combining traditional with
contemporary behavioural biological cognitive and
humanistic
concepts
clarifies
explanations,
facilitating psychotherapy.
Method: - Collecting data, making assumptions
and synthesising ideas. From clinical observations: pairing birth and childhood with trauma, pairs
subsequent
maturational
and
adaptational
separations with PD. From neonatal developmental
studies:- classical and operant conditioning exist at
birth. From trauma theory:- neuroendocrinological
responses to perinatal trauma exaggerate fear anger
and rejection, activated at birth. As terror hate and
abandonment,
they provoke
defences
of
hyperarousal and intense attachment; and reinforced
through operant conditioning by maternal love, they
evolve intolerable masochisms. Masochisms
provoke repression, conflict with reason and
12