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Antisocial Personality Disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is a mental condition in which the individual diagnosed forms a long-term pattern of of particular behavior such as manipulation, exploitation, and the violation of another individual's rights. This behavior is often criminal. Antisocial Personality Disorder is typically associated with serial killers or people who participate in serious criminal activity. Killers such as John Wayne Gacy suffered from this disorder, he had suffered a bad childhood with parental issues and physical abuse from his father. In his adulthood this resulted in lack of remorse/empathy and he often deceived people through his lies aiding in the process of killing his many victims. Not all people diagnosed
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This disorder carries many different symptoms and not everyone who has been diagnosed suffers from all of them. The most prevalent symptoms amongst diagnosed individuals is lying, lack of remorse/empathy and exploitation/manipulation of others. Other individuals often deceive other people through scams and partake in fraud, aggressive behavior and complete disregard for the law or the safety of others and themselves. Many people who have this disorder often deal with substance abuse to cope either for personal pleasure or to use as a method for coping with the symptoms of this disorder. This disorder of the mind is typically rooted from a bad upbringing, in which the individual is raised in a bad environment with lack of parental attention, and possible physical and/or mental from the present guardian. There are hereditary components to Antisocial Personality Disorder, if a parent or immediate relative has been diagnosed with ASPD then it is possible for the offspring/relative of those individuals will inherit this mental condition. Although other individuals might suffer from these environments it does not allows result in an Antisocial Personality Disorder …show more content…
An individual cannot be diagnosed or evaluated for this mental condition until they have surpassed the age of 18 years old. In order for an individual to be diagnosed they have to have shown various symptoms before the age of 15. The diagnosis process is long and intricate to ensure correct results. People who have ASPD suffer worse from the symptoms when they reach early adulthood. Although this condition is hard to treat many individuals do not seek help because their behaviors make them think they do not need help. If the individual has severe or constant impulsive aggression medications such as mood stabilizers and an antipsychotics will be prescribed to them. A more popular and common treatment is various forms of therapy such as family/group therapy, behavior therapy and/or psychotherapy. Despite the various forms of treatment many people who have been diagnosed do not seek treatment unless forced upon
Every few years there are disturbing, yet fascinating headlines: “BTK killer: Hiding in plain sight” or “Police discover at least 10 victims at Anthony Sowell's home”; but what would allow an individual to commit the crimes they did? In cases like these there is usually a common link: Antisocial Personality disorder. It is an unknown disorder to most of the population which is why there are so many questions to be answered, the main ones being what is antisocial personality disorder and how does it effect patient and society as a whole? To answer these questions one needs an accurate background picture of the disorder.
Moran, P. "The epidemiology of antisocial personality disorder ." Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 34.5 (1999): 231-242. Print.
In the past, BPD was believed to be a set of symptoms between problems associated with mood and schizophrenia. These symptoms were believed to be comprised of distortions of reality and mood problems. A closer look at this disorder has resulted in the realization that even though the symptoms of this disorder reveal emotional complexity, this disorder is more closer to other personality disorders, on the basis of the manner in which it develops and occurs in families, than to schizophrenia (Hoffman, Fruzzetti, Buteau &ump; Neiditch, 2005). The use of the term borderline has however, resulted in a heated controversy between the health care fraternity and patients. Patients argue that this term appears to be somehow discriminatory and that it should be removed and the disorder renamed. Patients point out that an alternative name, such as emotionally unstable personality disorder, should be adopted instead of borderline personality disorder. Clinicians, on the other hand, argue that there is nothing wrong with the use of the term borderline. Opponents of this term argue that the terms used to describe persons suffering from this disorder, such as demanding, treatment resistant, and difficult among others, are discriminatory. These terms may create a negative feeling of health professionals towards patients, an aspect that may lead to adoption of negative responses that may trigger self-destructive behavior (Giesen-Bloo et al, 2006). The fact however, is that the term borderline has been misunderstood and misused so much that any attempt to redefine it is pointless leaving scrapping the term as the only option.
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
Individuals who are found to have antisocial personality disorder often exhibit patterns of manipulating or violating the rights of others, lack of regard for the law, lack concern for others, no control over their rage, and they lack guilt for any wrongdoings committed, among other signs. A person with APD will typically have a history of violence, aggressiveness, law-breaking, and deceitfulness dating back to childhood. APD is most common in men than in women. When considering criminal serial killers, people often state that these men they thought they knew were charming, sincere, and the ideal neighbor, but the truth is, it was just a façade masking cruel hatred. Three well-known serial killers that were diagnosed with having antisocial personality disorder are Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and John Wayne
First, Anti Social Personality Disorder is a mental condition that can cause a person to think and behave in a destructive manner. “Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is characterized by a pattern of socially irresponsible, exploitative, and guiltless behavior. ASPD is associated with co-occurring mental health and addictive disorders and medical comorbidity.” (Black, 2015) People with ASPD have a habit of antagonizing and manipulating others but also have no awareness for what is right and what is wrong. One tends to disregard the feelings and wishes of others. “ASPD typically begins during childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” (Kivi, 2012) ASPD usually is noticed around 8 years old, but it is categorized as a conduct disorder. Though children can be treated in what doctors may think is ASPD, children will not be completely diagnosed with the title of ASPD until at least 18 years of age. In time those with ASPD behavior usually end up turning criminal.
...ibit signs of struggles with social functioning (family and friendship problems often related to mistrust from the sufferer), criminal behavior (as there is a disrespect for social norms that relate to laws that need to be followed by all members of society), desires for harmful and impulsive behavior, and a lack of kindness or compassion. One of the top identifying aspects of ASPD is a lack of remorse when an individual steals from, hurts, mistreats, or kills another. Someone can only be diagnosed with ASPD if he or she meets the following criteria; he or she is at least 18 years of age and have shown significant impairment with normal functioning and home, school, and work. However, it wasn’t until 1980 that ASPD finally became a recognized mental disorder that contained a list of sympotms focused on observations that were agreed upon amoung various psychiatrists.
Antisocial personality disorder is a personality disorder marked by a general pattern of disregard for a violation of other people’s rights. Explanations of antisocial personality disorder come from the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and biological models. As with many other personality disorders, psychodynamic theorists propose that this disorder starts with an absence of parental love during infancy leading to a lack of basic trust. In this view, the children that develop this disorder respond to early inadequacies by becoming emotionally distant, and they bond with others through use of power and destructiveness. Behavioral theorists have suggested that antisocial symptoms may be learned through modeling, or imitation. As evidence, they point to the higher rate of antisocial personality disorder found among the parents of people with this disorder. Other behaviorists suggest that some parent’s unintentionally teach antisocial behavior by regularly awarding a child’s aggressive behavior. The cognitive view says that people with this disorder hold attitudes that trivialize the importance of other people’s needs. Cognitive theorists also believe that these people have a genuine difficulty recognizing a point of view other than their own. Finally studies show that biological factors may play an important role in developing antisocial disorder. Researchers have found that antisocial people, particularly those with high impulse and aggression, display lower serotonin activity and has been linked this same activity with other studies as well.
The first being antisocial personality, people with this disorder are not able to recognize right or wrong. Individuals with this disorder do not care for anyone and will do anything to reach their desired outcome. They feel no
Anti-Social Personality Disorder is a classified personality disorder in which a person, sometimes referred to as a “psychopath”, has a lack of empathy, an increased chance of acting violently towards others, and a complete disregard for authority and punishment. Prevalent features and symptoms include: shallow emotions, irresponsibility, mistrust of others, reckless thrill-seeking, disrespect for the law, prone to lash out with physical violence, harmful impulsiveness, arrogance, manipulative, greedy, lack of kindness or compassion, disrespect for others, and dishonesty (Psychology Today, n.d.). A main factor of this disorder is the inability to process, interpret, and display emotion, even fear. An example is that most criminals with this disorder respond drastically different to their sentencing than normal. They seem relaxed and unable to process it on an emotional level. They are also fully aware of what they are doing, and have no sense of distorted reality, or remorse which classifies them as sane people. They also have neurotransmitter deficiencies in the brain, such as reduced serotonin and dopamine (Freedman & Verdun-Jones, 2010). The overall population of people having this disorder is a small amount, about 3% and higher in prisons and abuse clinics which is around 70%. Also, because of their constant involvement in violence, most people diagnosed with this disorder die by violent means such as suicide and homicide (Internet Mental Health, n.d.).
Two Greek words: ‘psyche’ (soul or mind) and ‘pathy’ (suffering or disease), were combined in the 19th century by German Psychiatrists, to form a word that would describe the most dangerous and violent of all humans. Psychopathy, today, is called ‘mental disorder’, the study of which is still known as psychopathology. Other relating terms like 'constitutional (inborn) psychopaths' or 'psychopathic personalities' were used through the early 20th century to cover anyone socially undesirable in any way or those who violated legal laws and moral expectations.
Simons, C. (2001). Antisocial personality disorder in serial killers: The thrill of the kill. The Justice Professional, 14(4), 345-356.
Antisocial Personality Disorder, also informally known as psychopathy/sociopathy, is a disorder where people elicit manipulative behaviors and lack morals. This includes disregard for rules, violence, superficial charm, promiscuity, a superiority complex, and difficulty forming attachments. This is said to be caused by genetics as well as modeling, or watching other people perform this kind of behavior. 3.3% of Americans are diagnosed with Antisocial Personality disorder. It’s 70% more common in males than females and is seen greatly in
Human Psychology provides a strong personal interest with vast areas of study. With this said through my own study I was particularly drawn to the psychology of those whom commit violent crimes. The psychology of violent criminals, particularly serial killers, is riddled with a great array of mental illness, such as: schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, anti social personality disorder (informally known as sociopathy) and psychopathy. The study of human psychology – particularly that of violent criminals, although pursued is a broad field of great development. As well as this
“People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of crime than to commit them.”