Antisocial personality disorder

Antisocial personality disorder (APD), or dissocial personality disorder, is a personality disorder which is often characterised by antisocial and impulsive behaviour. APD is generally (if controversially) considered to be the same as, or similar to, the disorders known as psychopathic or sociopathic personality disorder. Approximately 3% of men and 1% of women have some form of antisocial personality disorder (source: DSM-IV). The word antisocial is often misused to refer to someone with social anxiety.

Related Topics:
Personality disorder - DSM-IV - Social anxiety

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Although criminal activity is not a necessary requirement for the diagnosis, these individuals often encounter legal difficulties due to their disregard for societal standards and the rights of others. Therefore, many of these individuals can be found in prisons. However, it should be noted that criminal activity does not automatically warrant a diagnosis of APD, nor does a diagnosis of APD imply that a person is a criminal. It is hypothesized that many high achievers exhibit APD characteristics. This, however, brings much criticism upon the diagnostic criteria specified for those exhibiting Antisocial Personality Disorder and the PCL-R. Both of these tests depend upon the person in question being a criminal or having participated in criminal activities.

Related Topics:
Prison - Diagnosis

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Research has shown that individuals with APD are indifferent to the possibility of physical pain or many punishments, and show no indications that they experience fear when so threatened; this may explain their apparent disregard for the consequences of their actions, and their lack of empathy when others are suffering.

Related Topics:
Indifferent - Pain - Fear - Empathy - Suffering

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Central to understanding psychopaths is that they do not appear to experience true human emotions, or at least, they do not appear to experience a full range of human emotions. This can explain the lack of empathy for the suffering of others, since they cannot experience emotion associated with either empathy or suffering. Risk-seeking behavior and substance abuse may be attempts to fill the emotional void. The rage exhibited by psychopaths and the anxiety associated with certain types of ASPD may represent the limit of emotion experienced, or they may be physiological responses without analogy to emotion experienced by others.

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Emotions which the true psychopath exhibits are the fruits of watching and mimicking other people's emotions. This is to mask their sociopathic tendencies from others.

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One approach to explaining APD behaviors is put forth by sociobiology, a science that attempts to understand and explain a wide variety of human behavior. One route to doing so is by exploring evolutionarily stable strategies; that is, strategies that being successful will tend to be passed on to the next generation, thus becoming more common in the gene pool. For example, in one well-known 1995 paper by Linda Mealey, chronic antisocial/criminal behavior is explained as a combination of two such strategies.

Related Topics:
Sociobiology - Evolutionarily stable strategies - 1995

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According to the older theory of Freudian psychoanalysis, a sociopath has a strong id and ego that overpowers the superego. The theory proposes that internalized morals of our unconscious mind are restricted from surfacing to the ego and consciousness.

Related Topics:
Freud - Psychoanalysis - Id - Ego - Superego

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