David Dutton Abnormal Psych Prof.

Manuel Anti-Social Personality Disorder Anti-social personality disorder(ASPD) is a new term for a condition many people are aware of; psychopathy. The name change is probably for the best since many people, even others who are majoring in psychology, dont fully understand the dynamics of this disorder. The majority of people assume that those with anti-social disorder are violent and aggressive people when in truth, most are actually non-violent and can appear quite friendly (Biabak, 2006). This doesnt mean they do not have the capacity to be violent, in fact, they have no qualms about it, but psychopaths or people with anti-social personality disorder act with complete control and cold, calculating logic meaning they know it is usually not in their best interest to murder others. Not because they think that life is precious or that the other person has a right to live, but purely because they wouldnt want to get in trouble or attract unwanted attention. If they do commit murder, then it is usually pre-meditated or referred to as cold-blood whereas normal people will often commit murder in the heat of the moment or what is often called crimes of passion. In terms of general populations, people with anti-social personality disorder make up one percent of the total population. For the most part though this is a good estimate since many people never seek treatment for their condition and few other people recognize that they even have the condition. Robert Hare, a leading psychiatric research whose main focus is on ASPD, has learned though his studies that most psychopaths are not malevolent looking characters with something unnerving they bear. Instead quite the opposite, people with anti-social personality disorder are actually supremely charming. They can learn through conversation, mirroring the

personality of those they are talking to and work to be as likeable and appealing to their target should they need something from them (Hare, 1999). In reality, psychopaths have little interest in the people around them and are not really trying to find any friendship in those around them. Truthfully, they arent even able to develop good friendship since they lack the emotions for it. People with ASPD usually have very shallow and base emotions. They usually only feel basic pangs of feeling such as anger, joy and despair. Another problem that stems from this issue of lack of emotion is that they also cannot recognize emotions in other people. In a study Hare conducted, when people are tested on guessing the emotions of pictures of people, psychopaths did much worse than normal people. Because of this, they are good at being friendly with people so long as they know their preferences and interests, but are bad at playing off the subtle cues of body language and facial expression. Their lack of emotional complexity though only hinders them in this respect slightly. Psychopaths are still quite intelligent and can put the piece together to learn how to best manipulate someone. Outside of their lack of more complex, secondary emotions, people with anti-social personality disorder also lack any sense of guilt, remorse, or shame. This means they dont abide by any rules of morality, society or religion. They will tend to base all their actions on what they like to do and whatever they are feeling at that moment. No one else is able to convince them to change their opinion otherwise, not even their own parents. Their self-focusing nature means they often can develop odd tastes or perverse likings. This is why many psychopathic serial killers tend to have violent sexual desires, because they see no shame in indulging those dark desires. This lack of guilt and self-centeredness means that the one thing they lack the most of tends to be empathy. They have no care or compassion for others and see no shame in

manipulating others and stepping over people to get what they want. It is this lack of empathy that is seen as the key sign of someone with anti-social personality disorder, not violent tendencies as the media would portray. Still, this lack of empathy means they are capable of doing terrible things to people without pity or remorse and can even kill someone on a whim. The reason though they do not constantly go around hurting people however is because of their own self-interest. While a sadist gains pleasure from hurting others and would risk their own well-being or freedom doing so, a person with ASPD can still process just as well as any other person and even more so when focusing on what is best for them (Simon, 2010). Psychopaths ego-centric nature means that they will always choose what they think is best to do and while they have no problems damaging those around them, it is not a source of pleasure for them. Mostly, psychopaths care for money or pleasure, like any other person, and because they lack the ability to form real friendships or any semblance of love they tend to become hedonistic in their pursuits. In the end, this hedonistic revelry can mean they pursue dark desires and may end up being serial killers or sadists. So how does one become a psychopath? Are they born with it? In a majority of cases, yes. Most psychopaths not only behave entirely different from those in normal society, but they also exhibit distinct differences in their brain structure. In Dr. Hares analysis of psychopathy, he noticed many neurological difference in the brain of a psychopath, most notably, that their brain takes two years longer to develop (Hare, 1999). What the effects of this lengthened developmental process do, researches can only speculate. The leading theory is that this longer process of growth in the brain is what is responsible for their slightly above average IQ score, usually about ten points higher.

Another main difference is the different levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. Those with anti-social personality disorder tend to have higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of serotonin. Testosterone is normally associated with aggression and ambition while serotonin is associated with stress and fear. These two combined together mean that psychopaths are very aggressive and opportunistic in pursuing their own goals while completely devoid of any fear of retaliation or consequences (APA, 2000). This gives a clear reason for why people with ASPD behave the way they do and gives us an understanding of why psychopaths can behave the way they do. Surprisingly though, despite these obvious biological causes, prescribing medications that affect these neurotransmitters does nothing to change their moods or personalities. This is certainly a very odd case as any other personality disorder caused by an unbalance of neurotransmitters can be helped by medications. Even in terms of physical brain differences, people with anti-social disorder have recognizable abnormalities. One main characteristic is that the amygdala, the brain center that is key for the fight or flight mechanism which is responsible for assessing danger and recognizing harmful situations and avoiding them. In the brain of a psychopath, the amygdala has very low functioning or almost no functioning at all. On the other hand, the orbitofrontal cortex is much more highly active, which is responsible for logic, deductive thinking and thought processing. In this example too, we can see how psychopaths lack any fear of situations or people and no remorse for their actions (Hare, 1999). At the same time they can also use cold logic to a high degree and plot endlessly around using people to their advantage. This difference shows how completely inhuman psychopaths can behave and why they can act so cruelly and without emotions.

One final, physical difference exhibited by people with anti-social disorder is the literal matter that makes up the brain. They tend to have less grey matter and more white matter. Grey matter is responsible for the main process of idea and thoughts as well as emotional formation. On the other hand white matter deals with connecting different lobes together and helps with connecting ideas together and translating different processes into one function and psychopaths have significantly more white matter. While the full effects of this difference are not fully understood, it can be seen in some of the symptoms. The lack of grey matter that correlates to thinking and emotional processing could be responsible for their lack of long term goals and impulsivity as well as a weak level of emotions. The white matter on the other hand could be seen as the cause of their incessant plotting and their ability to change their faade to manipulate other people better. In terms of diagnosing, psychiatrists do not generally diagnosis kids with anti-social personality disorder even though it is a condition you are usually born with. Instead a child with it is usually diagnosed with conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder. This is because kids at this age with anti-personality disorder tend to not exhibit all the symptoms. At a younger age these kinds of kids tend to exhibit even more impulsivity and since they have no respect or care for others, will usually ignore their parents and teachers. Kids who will develop ASPD will also show sadism towards small animals and their playmates since they lack any empathy for them or any ideas of social rules or morality. They may also exhibit behaviors like fire-starting or generally making things a mess and drawing on walls. Until they become adults and continue to show a characteristic lack of empathy and high impulsitivity then the child will probably be diagnosed as having a conduct disorder or oppositional defiance.

Conduct disorder is characterized by general disregard for rules or morals. They will fight with other kids for toys they have or they may kill bugs just for fun. They are very difficult to control as children and will disregard any rules given to them if they feel like breaking the rule will give them something or if they simply dont like the rule. Children with oppositional defiant disorder on the other hand lack any respect for authority. The will usually have some sense of morals, but in terms of people who give them orders they show complete disrespect, sometimes even going out of their way to ridicule or hurt those who they feel are trying to control them (APA, 2000). In both these cases, it means that the child usually has a tough time being control and lacks any respect for others. It does not always mean though that they develop anti-social personality disorder although it is a strong sign. One main distinction that needs to be made in people who develop anti-social personality disorder is what type they have. ASPD can be divided into psychopathy and sociopathy. What has previous been described about brain structure differences and increased intelligence is indicative of psychopaths, who are born that way, regardless of their upbringing or environment. Sociopaths on the other hand are more of a product of their parenting or their environment. They do not have the same neurological conditions and therefore have a more stable personality and have average intelligence, but they also have more of a tendency to be violent. Medication seems to be ineffective against sociopaths just as much as it is for psychopaths. Therapy treatment though, while terrible for psychopaths because it teaches them to be more manipulative, seems to have some positive effects on sociopaths, although this is not always the case. Some examples of people with ASPD are Josef Stalin, Ted Bundy and Dr. Mengele. Each of these people were known for their charisma. Stalin was known by his confederates as a constantly scheming and planning man, his work always revolved around keeping himself in

power and making sure to push down anyone else who might be a competition, whether it was through persuading them to act as an underling or simply eliminating them from existence. It was clear near the end of his reign that he had no care for anyone but himself and this is likely what lead to his downfall as those around him realized his self-serving ways. Ted Bundy was a serial killer with at least 30 homicides that he committed. The reason he was able to get away with this is because of his wit and charm even though it was completely false. Dr. Mengele, the mad doctor of the Third Reich, was extremely intelligent and thus gained his position as chief medical scientist for Hitler. He knew a great deal about the human body and even made new discoveries that advanced medicine and science that the world uses today, but this is because he showed an absolute lack of empathy towards his patients. He oftentimes performed experiments on anyone sent to the concentration camps, specifically he liked twins. He would often practice transplants, conjoining people and testing the lethality of different conditions on people such as electricity and cold. While many infamous and cruel figures are known as psychopaths, some are actually very good people. One example is Winston Churchill, whose mother noticed his completely disregard for rules and even private tutors lost their temper trying to teach him. He had to change school three times due to his disobedience and seemed to care about nothing except his fencing training. Finally he was sent to military school where his temper was brought into line and his lack of empathy and cold logic was put to use as a officer of the cavalry when he graduated. Eventually he became the British Prime Minister and lead the British forces against the Nazis to victory. Abraham Lincoln was also believed to have had ASPD, although this diagnosis didnt even exist back then. However examples of his mother having a great deal of stress raising him and his reputation of being lazy and uncaring in his early teens seem to show early conduct

disorder. As an older teen and in his twenties he was known for his audacity and self-assuredness as well as a lack of fear. An example comes from him fighting a local gang leader and beating him in front of the other gang members. As a president he was known for sticking to what he thought best, especially in regards to the civil war in which almost everyone from congress objected to going to war, yet he still thought it was best and thus helped save the soul of the nation. Anti-social personality disorder may not be fully understood and may even be misunderstood by the average person, but it is still a very amazing disorder. Those who suffer from it can do great things or terrible deeds. Their inherent brain differences seem to teach us a lot about how the mind works and we still have more we can learn from it. Hopefully more research will be conducted and we can learn other mysteries of this disorder and how to treat it.

Work Cited Babiak, P. & Hare, R. (2006). Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work. Chicago; Harper Business.

Hare, R. (1999) Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. New York; Guilford.

Simon, G. (2010). In Sheeps Clothing; Understanding and dealing with manipulative people. New York; Parkhurst Brothers Publishers.

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Anti-social disorder and sociopathy. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR (4th ed., pp 85-93). Arlington