The antics of Charlie Sheen, Bernie Madoff, and Mel Gibson demonstrate why character really does matter. As I state in the title of one of my books, character disturbance is the phenomenon of our age.

The more often they’re held accountable by others, and the more often they’re expected to abandon their typical manipulative tactics for more appropriate behaviors, the more “practiced” [disturbed characters] become at being responsible.

“When we first started dating, I misinterpreted everything he did, thinking that he was really the victim of many unfortunate events, I would almost pity him, and the things that happened to him.”

Disturbed characters don’t like to think in terms of cause and effect relationships with respect to the decisions they make about how to manage their lives.

A key feature of the most disordered individuals is that they neither care enough nor think enough about how their patterns of behavior reflect on their character.