Anti-Social Personality Disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is perhaps the most frightening of all personality disorders, as well as one of the most difficult to diagnose. Personality disorders in general are defined as inflexible, maladaptive, personality traits that cause personal distress or an inability to get along with others. APD specifically is characterized by deceitfulness, lack of regret or remorse over actions, impulsiveness, aggression towards others or animals, irresponsibility and a general failure to conform to the norms of society. The person with APD can be described as one who feels nothing or almost nothing towards any other living thing, except perhaps contempt. However, they can still be quite charming when it suits them (such as con artists)and they can appear quite normal to the average person. It is possible that the development of APD begins in childhood, although it is not diagnosed as such until after eighteen years of age. In childhood, Conduct Disorder carries almost identical symptoms to APD. Patterns of blatant disregard for rules and authority, aggression, habitual lying, a tendency toward stealing and destruction of property that occur early in
Such was the case argued by John Wayne Gacy, Jr. In prison populations, however, APD is found to be evident in as much as 75% overall, with about 80% of male prisoners and about 65% of female prisoners having it. APD has been found to occur in roughly 3% of males in the U. The difficulty in trying to get the patient to connect their behaviors to feelings can seem almost insurmountable. There he held a series of odd jobs none of which lasted long. In fact, he says that he did not understand intimacy - what it was or how to achieve it. Also since those seeking treatment for APD are doing so only due to legal circumstances, they may lack the motivation to actively participate in their treatment. While monster would seem to be the only appropriate word to describe him (albeit inadequate), his friends and neighbors couldn't believe that the man who had thrown such wonderful luaus and bar-b-ques could have done these things. Currently, some experts believe that as much as 20% of the population of the U. In the adopted child study, those who were adopted out from biological parents who had APD or other disorders still maintained the risk of development although, in this case, being adopted into an environment of nurturing lessened it. Then, there is the problem of getting the APD patient past their extreme problems with authority. Neglect could also encompass the lack of moral teaching as a child being an origin of failure to follow societal norms and ignoring laws as an adult. That has got to be the most terrifying aspect of APD - that someone so insidious, so very dangerous, can blend into society, assuming any identity, being so very charming and gregarious , looking all the while like "just the guy or girl next door". Differences in the frontal and parietal lobes of some violent offenders studied in 1977 in Texas is thought to be yet another possibility in causing APD. It wasn't until he reached his teens that subtle signs of APD began to appear.
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