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 interpretation of how indi ...

known for his work on

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

. 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 The International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (abbreviated ISSPD) is an international learned society dedicated to promoting research on personality disorders. It was established in 1988 at the 1st International Congress on the S ...

. 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 37,000 members are involve ...

and the

American Psychological Foundation The American Psychological Foundation (abbreviated APF) is an American philanthropic organization dedicating to awarding research grants to psychologists in the early stages of their careers. It is affiliated with the American Psychological Associ ...

named the "Theodore Millon Award in Personality Psychology" after him. Million developed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventor, worked on the diagnostic criteria for

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder Passive-aggressive behavior is characterized by a pattern of passive hostility and an avoidance of direct communication. Inaction where some action is socially customary is a typical passive-aggressive strategy (showing up late for functions, st ...

, 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 common langua ...

, and developed subtypes of a variety of personality disorders.

Biography

Millon was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1928, the only child of immigrant Jewish parents from

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. His 19th-century ancestors came from the town of

Valozhyn Valozhyn, Vałožyn or Volozhin ( be, Вало́жын, , russian: Воло́жин, lt, Valažinas, pl, Wołożyn, yi, וואָלאָזשין ''Volozhin''; also written as Wolozin and Wolozhin) is a town in the Minsk Region of Belarus. The pop ...

, then a part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. 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 within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and went on to receive his PhD from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

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

Allentown State Hospital Allentown State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located at 1600 Hanover Avenue in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It served the counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, and occasionally eastern Schuylkill. It was one of seven rema ...

, a large

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

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

'' and the inaugural president of the

. He was Professor Emeritus at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

. 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 largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. The

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 The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – Fourth Edition (MCMI-IV) is the most recent edition of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. The MCMI is a psychological assessment tool intended to provide information on personality traits and ps ...

, 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 devised a set of subtypes for each of the

DSM DSM or dsm may refer to: Science and technology * Deep space maneuver * Design structure matrix or dependency structure matrix, a representation of a system or project * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ** DSM-5, the fifth ed ...

Books

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

Saunders Saunders is a surname of English and Scottish patronymic 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 footb ...

* 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 publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

* 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 university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been 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, journals, and DVDs in psychology, psychiatry, the behavioral sciences, education, geography, and res ...

* 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 31, 2014.

External links

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