Personality Disorders

 

Black, Donald W., M.D. and Lindson Larson. 1999. Bad Boys, Bad Men. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

People with ASP were formerly called psychopath

Prior work 1941 by Hervey Cleckley The Mask of Sanity 16 traits that define a psychopath:

·       Superficial charm and “good” intelligence

·       Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking

·       Absence of “nervousness” or other signs of psychoneurotic disturbances

·       Unreliability

·       Untruthfulness and insincerity

·       Lack of remorse or shame

·       Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior

·       Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience

·       Pathological ethnocentricity and incapacity for love

·       General poverty in major affective reactions

·       Specific loss of insight

·       Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal reactions

·       Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drinking and sometimes without

·       Suicide rarely carried out

·       Sex live impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated

·       Failure to follow any life plan

p.19-20

 

Antisocial Personality Disorder ASP:

·       Rebel against every type of regulation

·       “The resistance to authority and norms becomes the dominant force in their lives”(xi)

·       ”livelong patter of bad behavior is considered a mental disorder”(xii)

·       Individuals with ASP must be 18 or older

·       They cannot have any other psychiatric condition (p.17).

·       There are conditions that would mirror some symptoms of ASP:

·       Schizophrenia: hallucinations, delusions, bizarre behaviors

·       Mania: extreme elation and excitation

·       Manic Depression: aggression, irrationality, excessive sexual impulses, hyperactivity

 

 

ó However, severe alcoholism is seen as being typical for ASP patients

ó However, “adults diagnosed with ASP must have a history of conduct disorder”(p.36).

ó However, they score 10 points lower on typical IQ tests

 

Later the Authors claim:

ó “Mood disorders are another significant risk factors for one-third to one-half of antisocials.

·       Some, like Jim, develop major depressive disorder or clinical depression.

·       Mood disorders like chronic low-level depression, maniac-depressive illness

·       and anxiety disorders like panic disorder, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are also quite common

 

Question: how does this relate to the conditions that would mirror ASP symptoms?

Can we clearly differentiate between all these conditions? Are there correlations?

 

Questions for Discussion:

Who defines conditions for ASP?

Labeling theory: Who labels whom?

Conflict Theory: Who benefits?

Combining labeling with conflict theory: people with power make labels stick

 

Questions:

·       is it surprising if we find ASP in approx. 85% of the prison population?

·       Is ASP really a psychological disorder that causes criminal behavior?

·       Is ASP a psychological disorder or a social reaction?

·       If ASP is a psychological disorder, is it created by the patient or by the patient’s environment?

 

 

Different Aspects of the Problem of Antisocial Behavior

 

1. Nature Nurture

          A) Twin studies:

 

Identical = monozygotic share  100% of their genes

Nonidentical = dizygotic share 50% of their genes

 

Concordance rates of 67% for identical and 31% in nonidentical

should be 100%, and 50% .

 

          B) Adaptation studies

 

2. Medical Treatment

 

3. Diet

 

4. Nervous system

 

5. Association: Birds of a Feather.

          Glueck & Glueck Study

 

6. Gender Differences

 

7. ASP and Age

 

8. Sexuality

 

9. ASP and Crime

 

10. Suggested Treatment:

 

11. Case Studies

 

 

 

Prevalence of Psychiatric Conditions (according to Black)

 

Antisocial	2.5%
ADD attention-deficit disorder	2%
OCD oppressive-compulsive disorder	2.5%
Schizophrenia	1.5%
Panic Disorder	1.6%
Major depression	6%
Excluding the idea of multiple disorders, 16.1% of the population suffers from major psychiatric conditions