Sociopathic personality disorder or Sociopathy ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER

WHAT IS ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER? Its a mental condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others. Often times this behavior is deemed criminal.

BACKGROUND AND DIAGNOSIS: Antisocial personality disorder was discovered by many psychologists and has been around for years. Though it was called by different names before it was known as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Like other personality disorders, ASP is diagnosed based on a psychological evaluation and the history of severe symptoms. However, in order to be diagnosed with ASP, a person must have had conduct disorder as a child. Symptoms tend to peak during the late teenage years and early 20s.

SYMPTOMS OF A.S.P. People who have this disorder may be: Able to act witty and charming. Be good at flattery and manipulation. Repeatedly break the law. Disregard the safety of self and others. Have problems with substance abuse. Lie, steal, and fight often. Not show guilt or remorse. Often be angry or arrogant.

TREATMENTS: ASP is one of the most difficult psychological disorders to treat, but it is not impossible. People with this condition hardly ever seek treatment on their own, so most treatments dont start until after the person has been arrested or a family member seeks treatment for them. Because most treatments dont start until the person has been arrested, it can be difficult to get the patient motivated. And the only way to really get them to participate is to threaten to report their noncompliance. Psychotherapy is the most used treatment for this disorder, however, a psychoanalytic approach is inappropriate for these patients. Emotions serve as a vital aspect to treating people with this disorder. Since a person with ASP have more often had little to no significant emotionally-rewarding relationships in their lives, creating one between therapist and patient could be the key to treating these peoples.

ENVIRONMENT V GENETICS Antisocial Personality Disorder is more environmental than genetic. The reason being that one of the major causes of this disorder is people who have had little to no emotional relationships in their lives. Also, people who experienced child abuse, an antisocial or alcoholic parent have an increased risk to developing the disorder. Fire-setting or cruelty to animals during childhood are also linked to the development of antisocial personality disorder.