Dependent personalities are one of the most frequently reported disorders in counseling centers. Their symptoms include a constant need to be taken care of, submissive and clinging behaviors, fear of separation, difficulty making everyday decisions without excessive advice, fear of disagreeing with others, lacking independent initiative, going to great lengths to get support from others, and fear of being left alone. In the context of regressionism, this personality type is quickly pulled into a destructive dependency on her therapist. They are common, time-consuming, and difficult to treat. The therapist who simply sits down and listens, hypnotizes, and encourages the narcissist, borderline, or histrionic to go with her thoughts and feelings is throwing fuel on the fire of the disorder.
Diagnosis is everything.
Before we can ever begin treatment, we must first know what we're treating. Imagine if a person went into a physician's office with a broken toe and his presenting aliment was misdiagnosed as stemming from a brain tumor. The physician happened to be a brain tumor specialist and the subsequent operation was performed flawlessly. But in the end, the toe still isn t fixed and the patient has lost half of his cerebral cortex in the process. For some of the regression believers I spoke with I could tell their personality disorders had been in place long, before their journey into regressionism.