Personality disorders happen to be an important part of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) system due to the increased likelihood of them acquiring several Axis I (symptom) Disorders, particularly depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. They are also associated with a poorer recovery course from such disorders. Ann Mason and her coworkers followed anxiety patients for five years. They discovered that those who were diagnosed with additional personality disorders were 30 to 40 percent less likely to recover from their anxiety disorders.
There are ten personality disorders in the Axis II Disorders, which are divided into three clusters capturing important commonalities: dramatic and impulsive behaviours, anxious and fearful behaviours, as well as odd and eccentric behaviours.
In Europe and America, around 10 to 15 percent adults may have personality disorders. A study conducted in Norway on personality disorders has found that 13.4 percent of the condition equally distributed among both genders. The most frequently encountered were paranoid, histrionic, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
Among these personality disorders, the most destructive to society is Antisocial Personality Disorder. Therefore, this disorder has got the most attention from clinicians and researchers over the years. A second personality disorder that attracts a great deal of attention is Borderline Personality Disorder.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
In the past, people with ASPD were referred to as 'sociopaths' or 'psychopaths': such terms are still in use today, though not for the purpose of formal diagnosis. In the 19th century, at times, such individuals were referred to as moral imbeciles. Individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder are among the most inter-personally destructive and emotionally-harmful individuals. Men outnumber women by 3 to 1 according to diagnosis.
Individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder show lack of conscience: they exhibit less guilt and anxiety, and tend to be impulsive and unable to delay gratification of their needs. They lack emotional attachment towards others. For example, a report from a person diagnosed with the disorder was as follows:
When I was in high school, my best friend died of leukaemia, and I went to his funeral. Everybody there was crying...but I suddenly realised that I didn't feel a thing. That night, I thought more about it and realised I wouldn't miss my parents if they were to die. I also realised that I didn't care for my siblings either. There was no one I cared for, but I didn't need any of them to begin with, so I rolled over and slept.
The lack of capacity to care about others may make antisocial individuals a danger to society. For example, murderers such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Jeffrey Dahmer failed to show remorse for the crimes they committed, or sympathy for their victims.
Behavioural contradictions
Antisocial individuals may often verbalise feelings and commitments with great sincerity, but their behaviours tend to indicate otherwise. They often appear to be very intelligent and charming. They also have the ability to rationalise their inappropriate behaviour, making it appear reasonable and justifiable. Consequently, they often tend to be virtuosos at manipulating others in order to talk their way out of trouble.
The aforementioned antisocial characteristics can be reflected in psychological test responses and in social behaviours. According to the Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profile of Milwaukee killer Jeffrey Dahmer, over a period of three years, he killed and dismembered at least 17 male victims. He slept with the dead bodies, engaged in sexual acts with them, stored body parts in jars and cannibalised many of them. He was convicted for the serial murders, for which he was sentenced to 1,070 years in prison.
According to MMPI expert Alex B. Caldwell, several aspects of this profile can help explain Dahmer's bizarre and destructive behaviour. His extraordinary high score on the psychopathic deviate scale is a reflection of antisocial impulsiveness coupled with a total lack of capacity for empathy and compassion. In all likelihood, his victims were regarded as no more than objects to satisfy his perverse needs.
Depression-Anxiety Discrepancies
According to Caldwell, there was a marked discrepancy between the depression and psychasthenia (anxiety) scales, which is rarely seen on the MMPI, reflecting Dahmer's sense of being fated or doomed to repeat his acts until he's caught: the high depression score, together with an absence of fear that, in normal people, may inhibit murderous behaviour (the low psychasthenia score).
Even though his profile was an indication of his high levels of psychological disturbance, it also reflects Dahmer's ability to mask his pathology under the normal facade which he used for years to fool law enforcement officials. Dahmer's general demeanour looked so normal that despite the horrific acts and the level of psychopathology shown in his results, his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was rejected by the jury. Instead, he was sent to prison, where he was murdered by another inmate.
Individuals with antisocial personalities tend to display a perplexing failure in response to
punishment due to their lack of anxiety, making the threat of punishment not a reason to deter from engaging in self-defeating or illegal acts
over and over. This results in some of them developing imposing prison records.
An individual has to be at least 18 years old
to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. However, there is a
requirement of substantial diagnostic criteria before the age of 15, which includes acts of
habitual lying, excessive drinking, use of drugs, theft, vandalism, early and aggressive
sexual behaviour, and chronic rules violations at home and school. Thus, Antisocial Personality Disorder is the culmination of deviant patterns of
behaviour typically beginning at childhood.
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