B D Finch Jan 27, 2014:

Not at all clear There are several errors of English in your text, which indicate that the person writing it is either not very literate (unlikely) or not a native speaker of English. This could be important, as it could indicate that the meaning of "believes her own counsel" is a mistake that can only be clarified by the writer of the source text.

"it is a twofold problem related to her personality traits (passive aggressive and schyzotypal [schizotypal,] ) which means that she believes her own counsel and unless compelled is un-likely [unlikely] to consider other persons’ point of view [another person's point of view? other people's points of view?]. When the sway held over her by the strength of her alcohol habit is also considered [there should be a comma here] Mrs. X does not tend." [Is the last sentence unfinished or is "tend" a mistake?]

Jenni Lukac (X) Jan 27, 2014:

"Own counsel" is not that common in speech, so I think that the expression the writer has used is probably is a derivation. However, I imagine that this is of minor interest to Eva at this moment as she probably has a deadline to meet.

David Moore (X) Jan 27, 2014:

@Eva 'Believe' and 'keep' give a totally different meaning to the words around them; I believe Jenni has confused herself. I see the writer as meaning that she ignores all other opinions, which is not the same as keeping one's opinions to oneself. So I cannot see it as being a variation of the idiomatic expression quoted. But having said that, Jenni's answer is in order, even if the reasoning in the discussion section may be open to question...

Jenni Lukac (X) Jan 27, 2014:

Yes, it's a variation of the idiomatic expression "to keep one's own counsel:
keep one's own counsel
Fig. to keep one's thoughts and plans to oneself; to withhold from other people one's thoughts and plans. Jane is very quiet. She tends to keep her own counsel. I advise you to keep your own counsel.http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/keep own counsel
As seen in this explanation, "keeping one's own counsel" describes not openly divulging one's opinion. That's probably why the writer used the word "believe" instead of keep".
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/counsel

Ewa Dabrowska (asker) Jan 27, 2014:

I'm glad I've asked, again I suspected it had an idiomatic meaning