AUTHORITARY People: Characteristics and How to Treat Them

Throughout our lives we will meet people who are somewhat difficult to handle and it is always better to be prepared. In Psychology-Online we want to talk to you about the authoritative people, what they are like and how they usually behave, so that the relationship you have with them does not affect you in a negative way.

Index

1. What is an authoritarian person
2. Characteristics of authoritarian people
3. Can an authoritarian person be empathetic?
4. How to treat an authoritarian person
5. How to deal with an authoritarian partner

The authoritarian people are those that generally want impose your ideas and his will to those around him. They have the need to control everything and everyone, and when you ask them for an explanation, they usually answer: "because I said so."

Authoritarian people are not usually born with this personality trait as it is, but its appearance is quite associated with the education received. They likely grew up in an environment where the control of others is welcome. Therefore

Not all authoritarian people behave in exactly the same way, but they do have some common characteristics that we will see next.

As I said, not all authoritarian people have all the characteristics or with the same intensity, but surely if you know someone you will identify them with several to a greater or lesser extent.

• They are demanding. They are usually hardworking people who like to do things well. This in itself is not negative, the problem is that they are also demanding of others. Here you will find Positive and negative points of being demanding of yourself.
• Aggressiveness. They are aggressive to provoke fear and thus get them to obey them. They are more aggressive towards those who do not obey them or try to change their minds.
• Extremism. They are usually extreme people, white or black, but they do not move in the gray tones. In addition to being extremists, they understand that their ideas are correct and they despise the opinions of others.
• Your achievements are greater. Their achievements or merits are greater and better than the achievements of others. Thus they justify that they are the ones who must command and control. Being their best achievements, they look down on the achievements of others, which will never be as good as theirs.
• Leaders. Authoritarian people name themselves leaders without asking anyone. They are undemocratic and understand that things should be done their way, so they organize and command others. And not precisely to make things the best possible, but to do them the way they want them to be done.
• Aggressive communication style. His way of communicating is accusatory, disapproving, and blunt. They do not take into account the wishes and opinions of others so they do not show the slightest bit of empathy. In this article you can see the Characteristics of a person with an aggressive communicative style.

Authoritarian people by rule lack empathy. Considering that their ideas are correct and belittling those of others, it is difficult to put themselves in their shoes. Normally they do not come to think that another person may be right and they are wrong and they do not usually understand why they do not think like them. Although they frequently attribute it to the lack of intelligence, knowledge or logic of others.

On the other hand, empathy can and should be worked in these cases, because its lack can hinder their social and work relationships, to the point that people move away from them. Here we talk about How to practice empathy.

To deal with an authoritarian person you must know what he is like. Once you know how they act and how they have come to be like this, you will understand that you are not the cause of their behavior but it is a personality trait.

Even if the way he treats you irritates you, do not respond aggressively because it will make things worse. Try to be assertive. Here you will find what is assertiveness and how to practice it.

You can explain that you don't like being treated the way he or she does. You don't have to be submissive or submissive to prevent her from getting angry.

How to live with an authoritarian husband or wife? When it is your partner who behaves in an authoritarian way, the difficulty in communication and in the relationship increases. Authoritarian people often submit their partner to their will. In the long run, the security and confidence of the subject diminish, his personality ends up blurring and he no longer knows very well who he is and what his ideas are. In addition, he usually stops doing things that he wants to do, even giving his opinion, as long as he does not provoke the ire of his partner.

So that this does not happen, it is best to act from the beginning of the relationship. Don't give in to their demands if you really do not consider them adequate. Don't give him power. If you begin to tolerate everything he or she imposes on you, they will reaffirm their power and it will increase.

If you consider it necessary, propose to go to couple therapy to work on communication style, empathy and conflict resolution.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Authoritarian people: characteristics and how to treat them, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• Bernstein, A. J. (2012). Emotional Vampires: How to recognize and deal with those people who manipulate our feelings. Madrid: EDAF.
• Stamateas, B. (2013). Toxic people. Barcelona: Debolsillo.