Was Queen Jezebel intelligent? Insight in individuals with histrionic personality disorder

Abstract

In this article, the author attempts to answer the question of whether it is possible to speak of insight in individuals with histrionic personality disorder. In principle, this question is rhetorical, since researchers, and not only psychoanalytic ones, have long had no doubt that the answer to this question is „no”. However, it is worth asking the question again and answering it in the context of a very specific group of women whose symptoms manifest themselves in places of religious worship. People associated with theology, especially clergymen, describe such people as functioning in the „spirit of Jezebel,” the amoral queen described in the Bible. The author of the article attempts to look at this phenomenon with the help of an imposing analogy of the characterization of Jezebel in women with histrionic personality disorder. Highlighting the danger that these individuals pose in places of worship in the area of respect for the sacrum, the author tries to explain the motivations for their actions. This allows us to look at them as individuals who hide inner despair under the mask of unconscious defenses, most often in the form of sexualizing even formal relationships.