From Difficult to Disturbed: Understanding and Managing Dysfunctional Employees

Chapter 4. Preeners and Predators: Narcissistic and Antisocial Employees

In graduate school, I came across an article in a psychology journal that somewhat whimsically, but insightfully, divided personality disorders into “onion” and “garlic” types. Onion personalities are the internalizers; as with eating too many onions, these individuals give themselves mental indigestion. They may secondarily disturb others around them (phew—onions!), but most of their suffering is unto themselves. However, the externalizers—the garlic personalities—feel just fine; there’s no bellyache or psyche-ache and the distress they cause is only for those around them (phew—garlic!).

Most of the personalities we’ve discussed so far are of the onion variety: They suffer ...