Antisocial personality disorder

Normal range? two categories…

adventurers -  people who live on the edge and push boundaries and restrictions

dissenting personality - Unconventional, do things their own way and are willing to take the consequences, regardless of how others might judge them

boundary of normality and pathology

Individuals who never come in contact with the law because they are effective at covering their tracks

• Capacity for guiltless willingness to deceive and exploit others, though not overtly physically cruel

Examples:

• Industrialists and entrepreneurs who flourish in the gray area of legal technicalities

  • Even when at great costs to others

• Politicians

  • Deception of doublespeak is a talent necessary for survival

  • Skirting the edge of deceitfulness, they “spin” objective events by

    • Minimizing negative

    • Exaggerating positives

• Lie by omission by failing to report the total circumstances and full motivations of their actions

• Deliberately create public policy so complex that any particular aspect might be singled out to impress the special interest of the moment

• Can be thought of as “premeditating antisocials”

• Other examples

  • The smooth-talking businessman

  • The less-than-forthcoming used-car salesman

• Not as vivid a description as the serial murderer

  • But more common

  • Result in just as great a threat to society

Definition requires a history of

conduct disorder

disorder vs style - Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

• Disorder - Consistently violates social norms through illegal activities

• Style - Puts its own value system above that of the group and is occasionally caught up in conflict thereby

style versus disorder - Deceitfulness

• Disorder - Uses various forms of deceit, conning to achieve their own ends or gain pleasure

• Style -  “Slippery”, tending to finesse critical points and spin objective events to its advantage

  • Without engaging in outright deception

style versus disorder - impulsivity

• Disorder - Too impulsive to consider the consequences of its actions

• Style - Naturally spontaneous and self-indulgent

  • Knows when a failure to delay gratification would violate social norms or lead to substantial harm to self or others

disorder versus style - agresiveness

• Disorder - Aggressive to the point of repeated fights or assaults

• Style - Assertive in creating a felt physical presence

style versus disorder - recklessness

• Disorder - Recklessly disregards the safety and welfare of both self and others

• Style - Simply see themselves as being less resistant to risk than the average person, but not impulsively careless or foolhardy

style versus disorder - irresponsibility

• Disorder - Consistently irresponsible as to work and financial obligations

• Style - Prefers to remain free of external constraints and to spend on the joys of the present rather than save prudently for the future

style versus disorder - lack of remorse

• Disorder - Rationalizes exploitation of others

• Style - Aggressively or impulsively self-serving within moral, social, and legal boundaries

covetous variant

variant of pure pattern

• Feel that life has not given them “their due”

  • Aggrandizement

  • Desire to possess and dominate

• Jealous of those who have received the bounty of a good life

  • Driven by envious desire for retribution

• Goal is compensation for the emptiness of life

  • Gotten through deceit or destruction 

  • Think they are the only one who can right the wrong

• Seething with anger and resentment, their greatest pleasure lies in taking control of the property and possessions of others with no remorse

  • Some are overtly criminal

  • Many possess an enormous drive for revenge

  • Manipulate others like pawns in a power game

• Most feel

  • Deep sense of emptiness, regardless of success

  • Images of how different life might have been had opportunity blessed them

reputation defending antisocial

narcissistic features

• Motivation is to defend and extend bravery and toughness

• Antisocial acts are designed to ensure that

  • Others notice them and accord them the respect that they deserve

  • Desire to be known as someone not to be fucked with

• Perpetually on guard against the possibility of belittlement

• Society knows them as those who are

  • Significant

  • Not to be easily dismissed, treated with indifference, taken lightly, or pushed around

• When status or ability is slighted

  • May erupt with ferocious intensity

  • Posturing

  • Threatening until their rivals back down

• Being tough and assertive is essentially a defensive act intended to prove their strength and guarantee a reputation of indomitable courage

risk taking antisocial

histrionic features

• Wish others to see them as unaffected by what almost anyone else would experience as dangerous or frightening

• Risk is proactively sought as its own reward

  • Provides a means of feeling stimulated and alive

  • Not a means of material gain

• Thrill seekers infatuated by opportunities to test their mettle

• Perform for the attention, applause, and amazement of an audience

  • Without these opportunities they would feel trapped by the boredom of life

• Seen by others as foolhardy, if not stupid

nomadic antisocial

avoidant and schizoid features

• These individuals drift along at the margins of society

  • Scavenge for whatever slim resources they come across

  • Differ from most Antisocials who react antagonistically to social rejection

• See themselves as jinxed or doomed

• Desire to exist at the edge of a world that would almost certainly reject them

  • Mired in self pity

  • Societal drop outs

malevolent antisocial

paranoid and sadistic features

• Often seen as the least attractive antisocials

  • Described as belligerent, rancorous, vicious, malignant, brutal, callous, vengeful, and vindictive

• Perform actions charged with a hateful and destructive defiance of conventional social life

• Seek to secure their boundaries with cold-blooded ruthlessness

• Avenge every mistreatment they believe others have inflicted on them in the past

• Interpret goodwill and kindness of others as hiding a deceptive ploy for which they must always be on guard

psychodynamic perspective says the develops but _ does not

ego, superego

As a result, the total personality remains dominated by the infantile Id and its pleasure principle.

• immediate gratification, sex and aggression, no remorse or regard for others, failure to think ahead, no tolerance for frustration

antisocials lack a …

conscious

• Antisocials have little in the way of an inner voice or internal censor to moderate their actions

• Immediacy of their own impulses, urges, and desires outweigh societal constraints

• Without a conscience, other persons become the raw material for gratification

• When social rules interrupt behavior, they exist as nagging nuisances to be circumvented

common themes of cognitions

• The rules by which they live are significantly and noticeably different from those of the broader community

• Goal of life is to limit or avoid the control by other

• All about preemptive strikes

• Best defense is good offense

affectivity

Can range from

• Reclusive and disengaged antisocial with self-focused actions (e.g., heroin use)

• Aggressive acting-out individual

• Significant deficits in emotional processing may be a characteristic (particularly with empathy)

interpersonal functioning

• Some have poor interpersonal skills and have problems that are rooted in their social skills deficits

• Others have superb interpersonal skills and use them to manipulate others (e.g. the “con artist”)

impulse control

• Range from

  • Individuals who evidence excellent impulse control and patiently wait for the chance to get what they want

  • Opportunists who reach out and grab what they want without thought of consequence (e.g. muggers)

erroneous belief

• “I need to look out for myself”

• “I need to be the aggressor or I will be the victim”

strategy

• Overt antisocials will openly attack, rob, and defraud others

• Subtle antisocials (“con artists”) seek to inveigle others and exploit or defraud them