Dangerous Disorders of the Psychosis

Matthew Gelnaw

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

22 February 2018
 1 Gelnaw

Matthew Gelnaw

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

22 February 2018

Dangerous Disorders of the Psychosis

“Since the beginnings of psychiatry in the early nineteenth century, it has been

recognized that there are persons whose persistent antisocial behavior cannot be understood in

terms of mental disorder or neurotic motivations. Psychiatric befuddlement is evident in the

diagnostic labels used to classify these people.” (David T. Lykken 1) The following quote from

psychologist named David T. Lykken and his paper about one of the most dangerous

psychological disorders in history, Antisocial personality disorder. Psychology has existed

become imperative for understanding the human brain since intelligence first became something

important. We use psychology in the modern era to comprehend human reactions, decisions, and

behavior. Although, sometimes we need psychology for something much darker. Sometimes we

need it to explain the twisted and corrosive minds of society. Those who steal, rape, kill, and all

other heinous crimes. Over the course of history psychologists conducted experiments have

taken place to better understand these shadowy subsections of society. We have a series of labels

and diagnosis to try and explain these parts. Psychopathy, schizophrenia and other various

disorders often times become the turning point deciding whether an individual succumbs to
 2 Gelnaw

criminality, or a law abiding citizen; these problems have become the duties entrusted to forensic

psychologists to study and understand.

The first of these disorders exists as most likely the most prominent. Antisocial

personality disorder. This condition has links to hundreds of criminal cases. It has the title of one

of the most elusive and hard to understand disorders in history. Antisocial personality disorder,

otherwise known as psychopathy and sociopathy, exists in layman's terms, as a disorder in which

a person becomes completely detached from their emotions. Often times the populus becomes

confused and groups sociopathy and psychopathy as the same thing. They either make this

assumption, or they make the assumption that psychopathy exists as the violent side and

sociopathy the emotional side. These misconceptions stem from the common fact that most APD

criminal cases result in psychopaths murdering “loved ones” and sociopaths manipulating their

way through the system to gain what they want. The truth stands that psychopaths live as much

more.

Psychopaths have a certain elegance and prestine to their actions and how they operate,

yet at the same time the elegance shrouds itself in the dark actions they often take. Psychopathy

in its simplest form exists as the disorder in which a human can not properly feel emotions or

guilt. This often leads them to become detached from society as they lack the capability to

comprehend the concepts of remorse, guilt, happiness, sadness, etc. They live in a world that by

themselves. A psychologist by the name Hervey M. Cleckley concluded in his research that

psychopaths have most in common with a person suffering from colorblindness. They simply

can't process or feel the emotions that society requires people to have to function properly.
 3 Gelnaw

“Cleckley took the more modem view that moral feelings and compunctions are not God-given

but must be learned and that this learning process is guided and enforced by the power of

emotional feelings. When these normal feelings are attenuated, the development of

morality—the very mechanism of socialization—is compromised. Thus we can see that Cleckley

regarded the primary psychopath is someone for whom the normal socializing experiences are

ineffective because of an innate believe, in short, that the hero and the psychopath may be twigs

on the same genetic branch.” (David T. Lykken 1) This stands as another fantastic quote

demonstrating a little bit of the philosophy of a psychopath. Now there exist several different

ways that psychopaths “birth.” Sometimes their innate lack of emotional comprehension can

chalk itself up to genetics, the unfortunate stemming of a couple of cells and neurons that didn't

link together in the baby's conception. Other times and most often it stems from trauma, and

neglect from parental roles.

As young children, people can't d properly circumvent abusive situations. So in a

household where an alcoholic father beats his four year old son, the child has to come up with

ways to cope with the abuse with his underdeveloped brain. Often times the child will learn to

ignore sadness and other similar emotions to cover up the pain their experiencing. Prolonged

exposure to this technique “locks” the brain in that state in a sense. As the brain continues to

develop from there, the psyche locks this “more efficient” way of existence into the driver's seat

of the individual. The individual then grows up through life only through the left side of their

brain. Relying solely on logic and reason. Completely oblivious to any pain they might cause in

their subconscious goal to fill the void of emotional emptiness.

 4 Gelnaw

“Sociopaths, although similar, can't share even an inkling of comparison. They exists as

different monsters entirely. Thus, when it comes to the homicidal violence of the contemporary

inner city, we are dealing with very bad boys from very bad homes, kids who in most cases have

suffered or witnessed violent crimes in the past. These juveniles are not criminally depraved

because they are economically deprived; they are totally depraved because they are completely

unsocialized.” (David T. Lykken 7) The message from this quote entails the idea that sociopaths

exists as one of the worst kinds of people. Sociopaths may not seem like it, but often end up

becoming even more malicious than their former psychopath. Often times unintentional, but also

very common as well. Sociopaths share similarities with its husk like brother, and tend to use

their lack of understanding to manipulate and essentially steal what they desire. Sociopaths

function in a different way in that they don't have the ability to feel ripped away from them

completely. They only have the capacity for intense self hatred and anger. With this very limited

knowledge on how emotions work -and how they feel- they manipulate victims by purposely

finding out what the deepest emotional cut would work the best, and using that to their benefit.

They twist and pull on people's heart strings, finding their weak points and abusing them to make

them easier to control, as well as so they can get something they can't truly comprehend, genuine

satisfaction.

Often times sociopaths have intense inner hatred for themselves. So they circumvent this

issue by attempting to fill the void by placing their targets at a place as low as them. It takes

place in the subconscious, sociopaths and psychopaths as well see themselves as much lower that

than the rest of society. The issue starts when they refuse to accept that, to help make themselves

feel anything at all, they pick a target, focus their on them, and manipulate them. Slowly bringing
 5 Gelnaw

them down not only on the same metaphorical level as the sociopath, but often they will break

the target completely and shatter who their existence, bringing them below them on their internal

social ranking. Allowing the sociopath to finally feel higher up on the list than someone. They

meticulously, swiftly, and quite frankly genius ways of bringing their targets down affect the

populous. As stated before, they find the emotional “weakness,” whether that exists as childhood

trauma, self esteem issues, or other things of that nature. From there they will find indirect ways

to hurt the target emotionally. Typically they will start by making subtle comments meant to put

the target down, and although it doesn't seem like much, these subtle “chips” at the target build

until the next thing they know, the target ends up miserable and broken. Just like the sociopath.

From there they jump ship and look for a new target to invest their energies into.

Perhaps the second most common psychological disorder in history goes by the name of

Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia stands as simultaneously the simplest yet most confusing disorder

to cover. It has an unbelievable amount of information, spanning from symptoms, to causes, to

treatment of the disorder. Most of the information stands as very extraneous and won't serve as

anything actually useful. However under the veiled curtain lies this disorders strengths,

weaknesses, and unanswered questions. Typically media portrayal of this disorder completely

miss represent it. They end up, more often than not, just like everyone else. Law abiding citizens

dealing with their inner demons. The difference standing as the demons existing as stronger

entities than the average pedestrian on the side of the street. People with schizophrenia have a

large number of symptoms, some good, others bad. Positive symptoms often include delusions

and hallucinations, a complete loss in reality, as well as an intense dependence on their families.

Ironically though, schizophrenics generally have a severe withdraw from society and the social
 6 Gelnaw

specifics with it. They also have motor function impairment as well as a lack in ability to speak.

Schizophrenia's link to crime typically stems from the delusions that the victims suffer, they

often become confused and act violently out fear. An example of these illusions deluding the

mind exists in the form of a famous serial killer known as David Berkowitz, or the .44 Caliber

Killer. This individual, plagued with schizophrenia, believed that he needed to kill six people

because he claims his neighbor's dog told him to. He would leave notes for the police department

in New York City, mocking them and their seemly incompetent detective skills. His delusions

affected every aspect of his life. In interviews and interrogations he would say that a demon

taking form of his neighbor's dog forced him to. This stands as just one example of how severe

this disorder can become. Unfortunately, there doesn't exist a cure for the condition. Meditation

stands as the only source of treatment currently.

Another dangerous disorder calls itself Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative

Identity Disorder (Goes by both). Although its low commonality, it has often one of the most

dangerous of the bunch. This disorder has an extremely tricky existence, seeing as that it doesn't

have a cure, and the treatment methods often times don't work. There don't exist very many

symptoms but the symptoms that do exist, have concentrated detriment. Those suffering from

this disorder have a completely fractured mind. Almost like a mirror of their consciousness,

shattered, and put back together with tape the best they can. Symptoms include severe conditions

in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, exist in an individual

simultaneously. Some people describe this as an experience of possession. The person also

experiences memory loss. For instance it stands as common to have a very aggressive personality
 7 Gelnaw

and then a polar opposite introvert afraid of confrontation. The “birth” of this disorder can

become understood relatively intuitively. Most times this disorder develops from an abusive

childhood, and the mind bending until it snaps. For example, a parent would beat her son if he

didn't keep his room clean. So to cope, the child's mind snapped into a new personality that

obsessed with cleanliness. This disorder panders to psychologists particularly because other

disorders such as depression or OCD can only develop in specific identities and not in others.

The main challenge for psychologists stands as not to put the mirror back together, but to have

the patient learn to accept and lived with this horrendous disease.

The final monster to behead stands as the final boss in a sense. Narcissism has become,

by far, the most common disorder, but the division in social detriment varies greatly. Causes for

this disorder continues to have shrouded in questions, psychologists cannot truly come to definite

conclusion about the development of this disorder. There stands to exist no concrete cause,

however hours of pondering in the dark always come back to this one theory. The idea that

narcissists become who they "conceive" through neglect. The irony speaks for itself

The belief stands that this disorder stems from the first couple of months of life in abuse.

Baby's have something that known as the “critical period,” in this time frame, this imperative

time period makes it so they form a concrete relationship with their mother. By doing this, their

mind forms their first loving relationship, and allows the baby to grow up with an ability to

connect with others on a deep emotional level. Missing this period could become what causes

narcissists to grow up as such. Without that initial bond, they can't form deep connections with

others. This truth exists because they do not have the subconscious framework to know what to
 8 Gelnaw

do. Also, due to this lack of attention at such a critical period, and the void never having

the initial filling; narcissists become obsessed with gaining the attention of others. They also

want to prove that they can stand as worth your time, so they accentuate their egos severely.

There exists many different symptoms associated with this disorder, these symptoms

include exaggerating their own importance, preoccupation with fantasies of success, power,

beauty, intelligence or ideal romance, believes he or she exists in a realm of speciality and can

only converse with other special people, requires constant attention and admiration from others,

has unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment, takes advantage of others to reach his or

her own goals, disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy, often becomes envious of others

or believes other people become envious of him or her, shows arrogant behaviors and attitudes.

These symptoms vary in intensity depending on the intensity of the disorder. The tricky part

about narcissism stands that every human exhibits these behaviors. Narcissists have very similar

characteristics than regular people, these symptoms can become just extremely severe, and often

hide from society, because unlike most other psych disorders, narcissists have the ability of self

awareness of their behavior. Narcissists have a “strategy” to attempt to fill the void of attention

and love in their psyche. They target an individual, and much like a sociopath, chip away at the

little things in their targets to derive artificial happiness from them. Narcissists have very little

empathy and cannot properly bond with people on an emotional level.

Crimal psychology encomasess all of these disorders and exists as the duties given to the

profession known as forensic psychology. This careers job exists as watching over, analyzing,

and predicting everything about the prior disorders and more. Criminal forensic psychology
 9 Gelnaw

stands as a subfield of a specialized area of psychology called forensic psychology, which

provides services to individuals and institutions involved in the legal system. Criminal forensic

psychologists work primarily in the criminal justice system, whereas the civil justice and family

court systems occupy psychologists in the other subfields of forensic psychology. This career has

many daily duties, some of these duties include typically perform research, administer tests and

evaluations, conduct interviews, observe witness/suspect behaviors, document their findings in

writing and testify in court. They may also perform mediation and victim counseling tasks. There

exist many different requirements to even earn the consideration of qualification. For starters,

those going for the career need a Ph.D in psychology. Criminal forensic psychologists who wish

to have notes taken down for their expertise can seek optional board certification in forensic

psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Requirements for this

certification include a doctoral degree from an approved program in forensic psychology,

completion of an internship, a state license, completion of a postdoctoral training program,

relevant work experience and continuing education. Candidates must pass both written and oral

examinations.

The disorders of the mind bend and warp past the point of proper functioning,

twisting individuals to a point where they come out unrecognizable. Even though this exists as

the case, that doesn't mean that society should not treat them any different than the “normal”

people in society. The biggest contributor to these disorders developing past the point of help

stems from the populous putting these individuals through ridicule that, even though they don't

truly understand, continues to exist as pain for them, especially considering that they have this

twisted wine bottle cap of a mind waiting to pop. A lot of these individuals with these
 10 Gelnaw

disadvantages often get through life with little to no serious trouble. Unfortunately though, there

exists a subgroup of plagued humans that succumb to their demons. These people still exist as

humans, despite their seemingly monster like behavior. People with these disorders that end up

in jail or killed tend to share similarities with someone with depression. Irony stems from that

statement considering that a lot of the time these individuals have depression on top of their

“main” disorder. Anyway, the similarities between these psychological diseases and depression

stand on their own as uncanny, especially for the criminals. Someone with depression has lost

touch with what makes them truly joyous in life. They wander aimlessly from day to day simply

existing and that alone. They try to feel better and more like a part of society but to some extent

have awareness to their detachment, thus making them worse off emotionally. These victims

exist plainly and numb, trying to make themselves feel anything positive by any means

necessary. Society doesn't accept these people, deeming them “freaks” and other similar

expletives. These victims become worse off, because the ones that that have a shred of self

awareness will associate these awful phrases with themselves, and lead them to develop the

mindset in life of, “Well society sees me as the monster, this leech to society, so why should I

try denying it?”

 11 Gelnaw

Bibliography

T, Lykken David. “Psychopathy, Sociopathy, and Crime.” ​NC Wise Owl,​ 1996.

<​http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=17&sid=dc48f2c9-f67b-4884-b7fb-0ab1bd0

c0b52%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLGN1c3R1aWQmY3VzdGlkP

XM4NDU1ODYxJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=9611171624&

db=a9h​>

Schneider, Karen, et al. "Psychological Distress and Experience of Sexual and Physical Assault

among Australian Prisoners." ​Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health,​ vol. 21, no. 5, Dec.

2011, pp. 333-349. EBSCO​host​, doi:10.1002/cbm.816.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=a9h&AN=67460386&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>

Fatani, Bayan Zaid, et al. "Schizophrenia: Etiology, Pathophysiology and Management - a

Review." ​Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine,​ vol. 69, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 2640-2646.

EBSCO​host,​ doi:10.12816/0042241.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=a9h&AN=126612130&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>

Alpher, Victor S. "Assessment of Ego Functioning in Multiple Personality Disorder." ​Journal of

Personality Assessment​, vol. 56, no. 3, June 1991, p. 373. EBSCO​host,​

 12 Gelnaw

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&db=bth

&AN=6391254&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=bth&AN=6391254&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>

Ferguson, Murray and James R.P. Ogloff. "Criminal Responsibility Evaluations: Role of

Psychologists in Assessment." ​Psychiatry, Psychology & Law,​ vol. 18, no. 1, Feb. 2011, pp.

79-94. EBSCO​host​, doi:10.1080/13218719.2010.482952.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=a9h&AN=57749230&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>

Richetin, Juliette, et al. "The Centrality of Affective Instability and Identity in Borderline

Personality Disorder: Evidence from Network Analysis." ​Plos ONE​, vol. 12, no. 10, 17 Oct.

2017, pp. 1-14. EBSCO​host​, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186695.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=a9h&AN=125733652&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>
 13 Gelnaw

Petronytė-Kvedarauskienė, Dovilė and Gražina Gudaitė. "Relationship with Authority in

Narcissism." ["SANTYKIS SU AUTORITETU IR NARCISIZMAS"]. ​International Journal of

Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach / Tarptautinis Psichologijos Zurnalas:

Biopsichosocialinis Poziuris,​ no. 19, Dec. 2017, pp. 71-88. EBSCO​host​,

doi:10.7220/2345-024X.19.4.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&

db=a9h&AN=123022843&site=ehost-live&scope=site​>

Kirk, Kristin. Personal Interview. 1/15/2018.