Passive-aggressive behavior

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Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defensive posture and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive.

1 Passive-aggression as a personality disorder
2 History
3 Common signs of passive-aggressive personality disorder
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Passive-aggression as a personality disorder

**Passive-aggressive personality disorder**
*Classification & external resources*
ICD-10	F60.8
ICD-9	301.84

Passive-aggressive personality disorder (also called negativistic personality disorder) is a controversial personality disorder said to be marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed resistance in interpersonal or occupational situations.

It was listed as an Axis II personality disorder in the DSM-III-R, but was moved in the DSM-IV to Appendix B ("Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study") because of controversy and the need for further research on how to categorize the behaviors in a future edition. On that point, Cecil Adams writes: "Merely being passive-aggressive isn't a disorder but a behavior — sometimes a perfectly rational behavior, which lets you dodge unpleasant chores while avoiding confrontation. It's only pathological if it's a habitual, crippling response reflecting a pervasively pessimistic attitude" ^[1].

When the behaviors are part of a disorder or personality style, repercussions are usually not immediate but accumulate over time as the individuals affected by them come to recognize the disavowed aggression coming their way. People with this personality style are often quite unconscious of their impact on others and genuinely dismayed when held to account for the inconvenience or discomfort their passive-aggressive behaviors cause others. They fail to see how they might have provoked a negative response, feel misunderstood, held to unreasonable standards and/or put upon.

Treatment of this disorder can be difficult: efforts to convince people that unconscious feelings are being expressed passively and are the reason for people's anger or disappointment in them are met with resistance. and he or she will frequently leave treatment claiming that it did no good. Since the effectiveness of various therapies have yet to be proven, these individuals may be correct.

In the psychoanalytic theory of transactional analysis, many types of passive-aggressive behavior are interpreted as "games" with a hidden psychological payoff, and are classified into stereotypical scenarios with names like "See What You Made Me Do" and "Look How Hard I've Tried".

[edit] History

The term "passive-aggressive" was first used by the U.S. military during World War II, when military psychiatrists noted the behavior of soldiers who displayed passive resistance and reluctant compliance to orders. ^[2]