Antisocial Personality Disorder Essay

Antisocial Personality disorder is defined as a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others (American Psychiatric Association, 659). This means any repeated actions that do not take into account any other factors like people's emotions are a case for Antisocial Personality Disorder. A diagnosis of APD requires three out of seven criteria as dictated by the American Psychiatric Association (659):

Antisocial personality disorder is a disregard for others rights and violating theses rights. This disorder starts as a child to people who carry this disorder portray the characteristics of irritability, aggressiveness, lack of remorse, and irresponsibility. A psychopath falls under the umbrella of antisocial personality disorders. A psychopath is a person with a personality disorders which is inherited from their parents at birth. Flashes of these inherited factors show and happen in the child upbringing this includes torture animals at a young age, playing weird dark games as a kid, or ripping heads of toys. A perfect example of a Psychopath is Edmund Kemper. A man who showed his psychopath tendencies at a young age that grew into to him becoming a serial killer.

Antisocial personality disorder is a very common mental disease around the U.S that can be treated, but not cured. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a young girl named Abigail Williams was a seventeen year old “Strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with and endless capacity for dissembling.” (Miller 1130). Throughout the play, Abigail’s personality has been very mean and unpleasant, which has made her full of nothing but worry, apprehension, and propriety (Miller 1130). Her personality change relates to a well-known disorder called Antisocial personality disorder, also known as APD. APD is a mental condition where a person’s “ways of thinking, perceiving situations, and relating to others are dysfunctional--and destructive”(Mayo Staff). Symptoms of this disorder are triggered during early childhood years and are “fully evident for most people during their 20’s and 30’s”(Mayo Staff). APD is a disorder that has symptoms that apply to Abigail because she often lies to people, she has had a hard life at home, and she intimidated people into doing what she wanted them to do.

Every person is commonly known for their unique personality, and the traits each of us have that are different than others. One thing many people suffer from is some Personality Disorder such as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is a disorder that is going against and violating other people's rights (Corner, 2014). Individuals with this disorder are more found to link with a criminal history or showing signs of criminal activity (Corner, 2014). Researchers are more apt to look at a person's behavior rather than personality traits and psychopathological aspects of what caused this

People have always been curious on what makes a serial killer; after all, it is difficult to imagine murdering multiple people and not feeling an ounce of guilt or emotion afterwards. In severe cases, this is what a person having antisocial personality disorder is capable of. Infamous serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson were believed to have this disorder. Personality disorders in general can range from mild to severe in the afflicter’s actions, but antisocial PD is arguably one of the most dangerous seen in human behavior history.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a personality disorder recognized within the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This disorder is

Antisocial personality disorder is a disorder of the brain that cause one to disregard other people’s rights by violating them, they lack empathy and are very malicious towards others, they enjoy the suffering of individuals whether it be an animal or human being and it usually occurs during child/teen hood and worsens as the child ages. With this disorder comes a hatred toward society due to lack of knowledge of the real world “Many of the children grow up shy, lonely, highly sensitive, with feelings of being rejected, unloved and neglected by family and/or society”(Miller, 2014, p.13). Isolation at young ages causes children to not know how to interact with others in the real world they think that it is okay to violate personal space because they were never taught what that was. With the isolation and feelings of oddity in the child, they begin to manifest fantasies within their own mind (Miller, 2014, p.14). Many times the child starts out with violent sexual fantasies that they would like to act out but do not have an execution plan so they experiment on inanimate objects or even themselves or family members who will not tell such as younger siblings. This quickly escalates to the things they do to strangers in society starting with smaller steps such as stalking, peeping tom, or abduction. With such successes, they begin their reign of terror

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder frequently commit illegal acts like destroying property, stealing, and harassing others. They often employ manipulation and deceit to obtain profit or pleasure. The criterion of impulsivity is often seen in a lack of planning. In other words, these individuals live in the present, not thinking about the past or future. This is often seen in numerous and sudden job changes, homes, or significant others. They tend to repeatedly fight with others and commit physical assault. A reckless disregard for one’s safety and that of others is often shown by unsafe driving behavior like drunk driving, drug abuse, or high risk sex. Those diagnosed are irresponsible. For example, it is not uncommon to see erratic work history, large gaps in employment (even when employment was readily available), departing a job with no plan to get another, and repeated unexcused absences

According to the DSM-V, the key characteristics of a personality disorder are defined as the following: “significant impairments in self (identity or self-direction) and interpersonal (empathy or intimacy) functioning.” More specifically, antisocial personality disorder is

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), opposition defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) are three distinct disorders based upon their respective diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. If ODD and CD were mild forms of ASPD, then there would need to be causal relationship between the childhood manifestations of ODD and CD and the adult manifestation of ASPD. There is evidence of comorbidity between ODD and CD, and also evidence to suggest that children diagnosed with these disorders may go on to develop ASPD later in life; however, correlation does not equal causation. The three disorders have subtle but important differences in their associated behaviors, underlying causes, treatment outcomes, and neurological signs.

Antisocial personality disorders are immense, and psychopaths and sociopaths are just two of the various personality disorders. An antisocial personality disorders is defined as, “a type of chronic mental condition in which a person's ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional — and destructive.” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Sociopaths are a direct correlation to antisocial personality

Antisocial Personality disorder or APD, is an umbrella term used

According to Merriam Webster dictionary an antisocial personality disorder or APD is a personality disorder that is characterized by antisocial behavior exhibiting pervasive disregard for and violation of the rights, feelings, and safety of others starting in childhood or the

Personality disorders are somewhat of an anomaly amongst the psychology community, for example some professionals in the field believe that these disorders aren’t actually disorders at all, they just feel that these people are odd. In order to better understand what a personality disorder is I will be giving the definition. A personality disorder is a “gradual development of inflexible and distorted personality and behavioral patterns that result in persistently maladaptive ways of perceiving, thinking about, and relating to the world” (Butcher, Hooley, Mineka, 2013). According to the DSM-5 in order to diagnose someone their personality must

“A personality disorder is a long-standing, inflexible, maladaptive pattern of perceiving, thinking, or behaving.” (Gerrig, Zimbardo, 2008, 470). One type of personality disorder is borderline personality disorder when a person is very instable and frequently lashes out in anger. The person will be very impulsive and are prone to self-destructive behavior. Another is antisocial personality disorder in which a person is frequently displaying unlawful behavior such as stealing or causing fights.