Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder preoccupied scientists since the early nineteenth century. People who would be diagnosed today, according to the APA Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, as having Antisocial Personality Disorder were considered in the early stages of psychiatry and then later by psychology as: sociopaths, psychopaths, lunatics etc.

According to the American Psychological Association Manual, the Antisocial Personality Disorder is "a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood." A person who is diagnosed with the disorder must be 18 and must have had presented symptoms of antisocial behavior before the age of 15 as well.

According to Moeller and Daugherty (2001) the symptom of the Antisocial Personality Disorder can be traced as having come to the attention of philosophy in ancient times: "Theophrastus, a student of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, described a personality type that he termed the "unscrupulous man" and which included behaviors that are significant elements of the current concept of ASPD (Millon et al.

1998)" (Moeller&Daugherty, 2001) Although it is a mental illness, the Antisocial Personality Disorder does not exempt a person form being sentenced in a court of law, in the case of criminal activity. The disorder has come to the attention of psychologists and sociologists as behavioral sciences that are equally preoccupied with the subject.

Individuals who are suffering from this disorder are unable to comply with social laws and norms, they are acting in disregard of the necessities ad well being of others and, more importantly, they are oblivious to the rights of others. Patients with Antisocial Personality Disorder are highly likely to commit crimes or be found to have committed acts against the law.

Although it is a chronic illness, statistics show that persons in their early teenage years and up to their 20 tend to reach a peak of antisocial behavior that qualifies them as suffering from the disorder. As other behavioral disorders, in the early ages of psychiatry, the Antisocial Personality Disorder was thought to be an inherited illness so that "during the past hundred years it has appeared as a sub-category of the mentally deficient and defective, or the group which at one time was referred to as the feebleminded" (McCallum, 2001, p. 4).

Later, psychology took over and added researches in the field of this particular disorder. Psychiatry, psychology, Education and Sociology have worked together during the last half of a century in order to provide a base for the prevention and treatment of the APD. Societies are preoccupied with criminal behavior and there are studies and researches undertaken by scientists in all the behavioral sciences in order to find the right solution for what became society's problem: persons with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Adolescents, who became the target of numerous such studies, have been followed by subjects in their childhood years, once scientists agreed that there is a "link between early childhood behaviors and later adulthood outcome" (Sampson, 1992, p. 64). The diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder has not ceased to produce controversies in the scientific world of behavioral sciences and medicine. While some consider it a mental illness others are strongly contradicting this theory (McCulum, 2001, p. 5).

McCullum assumed a different position in tackling this subject and started from the very reason for the scientist who first dealt with this category of patients that were coming from the criminal world and did not fit the rest of the mental illness categories available at the time.

As aforementioned, such a topic should be of crucial importance to every society today since it regards not only the cure for those who suffer from it, but more importantly, the prevention of criminal acts and through the sanitation of the mental state of the society as a whole. The debate nurture vs. nature is still going on, as in the field of many mental disorders.

Studies and researches have not reached the stage where it can be established without a doubt that the Antisocial Personality Disorder has genetic origins, nor have they reached a stage of certainty for conclusions indicating the nurture as the main cause for the onset of the disorder. The treatment is considered today problematic and the main cause are the fact that persons suffering from the disorder are less likely to seek medical or psychological advice and they usually come to get medical care or therapeutic treatment only if compelled.

When they become patients, those suffering from the disorder are unreliable since they are used to manipulate, have no sense of right or wrong, are impulsive and completely untrustworthy. A relationship doctor-patient destined to provide therapeutic treatment is almost never successful (McCallum, 2001). There are also more optimistic views with regard to the treatment of the disorder, especially in the filed of psychotherapy. The Mayo Clinic Stuff, for example, considers that the most effective results have proven to come from psychotherapeutic treatment.

Others, who share more pessimistic views like those described above, consider that most of the patients diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder are ending up only using what they have learned during their psychotherapy sessions in order to go around the rules and manipulate their therapists and members of the self-help groups for what they perceive to be their own interests. Since they present strong narcissistic tendencies, they are inclined to act in their self-interest continuing to disregard the rights of the others, including the specialists treating them.

The case studies presented in the literature dedicated to this disorder focus on the cases that came into the attention of the media and triggered the alarm because of their highly aggravated consequences. Cases such as that of the Australian Martin Bryant who casually opened fire at random and killed thirty five people and injured a dozen are unfortunately no longer single cases that happen once in a hundred years.

News about people who suddenly open fire and kill in public places started to shatter the ground in Europe, the U.S. And other parts of the globe. These are extreme acts of violence against society and these.