Here is an excerpt from an article written by Geoffrey James for BNET, what has since become the CBS Interactive Business Network. To read the omplete article and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the newsletters, please click here.

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If you’ve been around an office for any time at all, you’ve run into one of those certifiable nut cases who makes you (and everyone around you) miserable. Not to worry. Identifying a nut case is half the battle, because then you can avoid, ignore or neutralize. Knowledge truly is power.

To help you spot these workplace whack jobs, the brilliant and charming Sylvia Lafair has written a book, Don’t Bring It To Work; Breaking the Family Patterns that Limit Success. In it, she shows you how to identify and deal with the most common offenders. She calls them “behavior patterns” rather than “nut cases” and has all sorts of good advice for dealing with them.

But I call ‘em nut cases, and this post describes the 13 types that Lafair says are most common in the workaday world. This is information no serious professional (sales or otherwise) should be without.

[Here are the first two of the 13, adapted from Lafair’s book. Click here.]

NUT CASE #1: THE SUPER-ACHIEVER

Super achievers must excel at everything that they do… to the point of obnoxiousness. Not only do they achieve every conventional measure of career success, but their families must look picture perfect. “Happy” is not a word used by super achievers; the only word that matters is “successful.”

Super achievers see themselves as special and they want to be treated as such. They continually inflate themselves often at the expense of others. Super achievers hate criticism and will endlessly defend, explain or justify in order to prove that they are right and others are wrong.

If the super achiever is a peer, no matter how competent you are, you’ll walk away from an encounter needed to shake off an uncomfortable sense of incompetence. If you report to a super achiever, one of two things is bound to happen. Either you will sit at the feet of the star or you will be constantly told that your ideas are second rank. If you oversee a super achiever, expect underhanded maneuvers to get you fired.

Super achievers breed fear and resentment. Everyone begins to guard ideas and an uncomfortable sense of paranoia grows. Initially, a super achiever will charm certain individuals who look as if they can be the best stepping stones. But over time a slew of bruised egos accumulate and by the time the rest of the team what realizes what has happened, the super achiever has been promoted.

NUT CASE #2: THE REBEL

The rebel is a born fighter. Their animosity is almost always against authority figures, social protocols, or company rules and regulations. Rebels come in wearing jeans on a Tuesday when the casual day is Friday. They miss deadlines or arrive late to work just to prove they don’t have to follow the rules.

Rebels do these things because they thrive on negative attention, seeing it as the only way to get noticed. Rebels often strike colleagues as emotionally closed and hyper vigilant. Rebels claim to strive for change yet they have not done their deeper homework. They will take on a cause without really understanding the implications of their actions.

If you have a classic rebel on your team, watch out! About the only thing he or she loves more than throwing gasoline on a smoldering fire is getting others to do the same. The moment rebels hear of discontent, they will go to great lengths to convince others they should go to HR or get legal advice.

Most companies cannot tolerate rebels for very long which is why rebels are often sent to communication programs or anger management seminars. Rebels also get fired or quit their jobs, typically leaving with a tremendous amount of fanfare. Rebels are willing to prove a point regardless of consequences and this can easily damage communities, teams and companies.

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Geoffrey James has sold and written hundreds of features, articles and columns for national publications including Wired, Men’s Health, Business 2.0, SellingPower, Brand World, Computer Gaming World, CIO, The New York Times and (of course) BNET. He is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite and The Tao of Programming. He was also co-host of Funny Business, a program on New England’s largest all-talk radio station.