Theodore Millon () (August 18, 1928 – January 29, 2014) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

known for his work on

personality disorders Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. T ...

. He founded the ''

Journal of Personality Disorders ''Journal of Personality Disorders'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed psychology journal covering the study of personality disorders. It was established in 1986 and is published by Guilford Press on behalf of the International Society for the Study o ...

'' and was the inaugural president of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders. In 2008 he was awarded the Gold Medal Award For Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology by the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

and the American Psychological Foundation named the "Theodore Millon Award in Personality Psychology" after him. Millon developed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, worked on the diagnostic criteria for passive-aggressive personality disorder, worked on editions of the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...

, and developed subtypes of a variety of personality disorders.

Biography

Millon was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1928, the only child of immigrant Jewish parents from Lithuania and Poland. His 19th-century ancestors came from the town of Valozhyn, then a part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). He studied psychology, physics, and philosophy as an undergraduate at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

and went on to receive his PhD from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

in 1954, with a dissertation on "the authoritarian personality." Millon was a member of the board of trustees of Allentown State Hospital, a large

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

psychiatric hospital for 15 years. Shortly thereafter he became the founding editor of the ''

'' and the inaugural president of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders. He was Professor Emeritus at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

. In 2008, Millon was awarded the Gold Medal Award For Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology by the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

. The American Psychological Foundation presents an award named after Millon, known as the "Theodore Millon Award in Personality Psychology," to honor outstanding psychologists engaged in "advancing the science of personality psychology including the areas of personology, personality theory, personality disorders, and personality measurement."

Theoretical work

Millon has written numerous popular works on personality, developed diagnostic questionnaire tools such as the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, and contributed to the development of earlier versions of the

. Among other diagnoses, Millon advocated for an expanded version of passive aggressive personality disorder, which he termed 'negativistic' personality disorder and argued could be diagnosed by criteria such as "expresses envy and resentment toward those apparently more fortunate" and "claims to be luckless, ill-starred, and jinxed in life; personal content is more a matter of whining and grumbling than of feeling forlorn and despairing" (APA, 1991, R17). Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder was expanded somewhat as an official diagnosis in the DSM-III-R but then relegated to the appendix of DSM-IV, tentatively renamed 'Passive-Aggressive (Negativistic) Personality Disorder'.

Millon's personality disorder subtypes

Millon's personality disorder descriptions

Millon and other researchers consider some relegated diagnoses to be equally valid disorders, and may also propose other personality disorders or subtypes, including mixtures of aspects of different categories of the officially accepted diagnoses. Theodore Millon (2004).
Personality Disorders in Modern Life
.'' Wiley, 2nd Edition. .
GoogleBooks Preview
. Millon proposed the following description of personality disorders:

Books

*1969: ''Modern Psychopathology: A Biosocial Approach to Maladaptive Learning and Functioning'',

Saunders Saunders is a surname of English and Scottish origin, derived from ''Sander'', a mediaeval form of Alexander.See also: Sander (name) People * Ab Saunders (1851–1883), American cowboy and gunman * Al Saunders (born 1947), American football c ...

*1981: ''Disorders of Personality: DSM-III: Axis II''. John Wiley & Sons *1985: (with George S. Everly, Jr.) ''Personality and Its Disorders''. John Wiley and Sons *1996: (with Roger D. Davis) ''Disorders of Personality: DSM IV and Beyond'' 2nd edition,

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

*1974: (with Renée Millon) ''Abnormal behavior and personality: a biosocial learning approach'',

*2004: ''Personality Disorders in Modern Life'', John Wiley and Sons. *2004: ''Masters of the Mind'': exploring the story of mental illness. John Wiley & Sons. *2007: (with Seth Grossman) ''Moderating Severe Personality Disorders: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach'', John Wiley & Sons. *2007: (with Seth Grossman) ''Resolving Difficult Clinical Syndromes: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach'', John Wiley & Sons. *2007: (with Seth Grossman) ''Overcoming Resistant Personality Disorders: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach'', John Wiley & Sons. *2008: (editor with Paul H. Blaney) ''Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology, 2nd Ed.'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. *2008: (editor with Robert Krueger and Erik Simonsen) ''Contemporary Directions in Psychopathology: Toward the DSM-V and ICD-11'',

Guilford Press Guilford Press or Guilford Publications, Inc. is a New York City-based independent publisher founded in 1973 that specializes in publishing books and journals in psychology, psychiatry, the behavioral sciences, education, geography, and research ...

*2008: ''The Millon inventories: a practitioner's guide to personalized clinical assessment'', Guilford Press *2011: ''Disorders of Personality: Introducing a DSM/ICD Spectrum from Normal to Abnormal'', 3rd edition John Wiley & Sons

References

Sources

Theodore Millon, a Student of Personality, Dies at 85
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', January 31, 2014.

External links

The Millon Personality Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millon, Theodore 1928 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American psychologists 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews City College of New York alumni University of Connecticut alumni Harvard Medical School faculty Narcissism writers Lafayette High School (New York City) alumni