Theodore Millon's antisocial personality disorder theory and child sexual abuse

MILESTONE TWO 6

Position Statement on Personality Theorist Theodore Millon The contributions Theodore Millon to the conceptualization of personality disorders are immense. Further, their continued relevance to the field of personality psychology today cannot be overstated. According to the National Children’s Alliance (2018), “nearly 700,000 children are abused in the U.S. annually.” A significant percentage of these children are victims of sexual abuse. It is important to note that the thoughts, feelings, as well as behaviors of persons having antisocial personality disorders, i.e. pedophiles, differ from those of persons regarded normal. Could Millon’s contributions be extrapolated to those perpetrating sexual abuse amongst children? I am of the opinion that despite there being no probability of an overlay of an isomorphic nature, the antisocial personality disorder domains proposed by Millon match the basic identifiers of a pedophile. For a long time, clinicians attempted to make sense of the behaviors and motivations of persons who commit acts that appear so savage to the extent that the perpetrator is deemed insane. The only problem was that the said perpetrators’ clinical presentations did not in any way match known mental syndromes. One of those who attempted to understand this anomaly and present a framework for its evaluation was Prichard who in the 1800s came up with the phrase ‘moral insanity’ to describe the condition whereby an individual’s moral compass is extremely perverted, but their intellectual abilities/facilities appear normal (Kiehl, 2014). An individual in this category was considered as being incapable or being unable to maintain moral uprightness and decency. At the turn of the 18th century, and for most of the 19th century, the moral insanity diagnosis was roundly embraced especially as a defense in most American courts. Later on, some, including but not limited to Schneider and Kraepelin helped in the formulation of psychopathy and personality disorder schools of thought in an attempt to describe persons with personality disorders. It should, however, be noted that it was Henderson, as Kiehl (2014) points out, who formulated a sound basis for the present-day depiction of personality disorders in seeking to describe persons who present antisocial conduct despite conforming to a certain intellectual calibration. In essence, antisocial personality disorder, as Millon and Davis (1996) point out, is termed as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others…” Millon contends that there needs to be a holistic approach taken whereby the ntrapsychic, cognitive and interpersonal aspects of his persinality theory need to be combined in order to encompass more than just psychology which is why he builds his theory on the foundations of evolutionary biology. Thus the first domain to be considered herein is the behavioral domain. In this case, persons exhibiting antisocial behavior are seen as having an impulsive mode of conduct. Most of their acts are largely triggered by the ‘heat-of-the-moment’ and they have a tendency to adopt a specific course of action without taking into consideration the resulting consequences. Pedophiles have this ‘short-sighted’ tendency, with their actions being motivated by the ‘heat-of-the-moment.’ This effectively means that their control of impulses is extremely poor. While an average person would be expected to be familiar with the consequences child abuse - i.e. to the victim and their families, and to the perpetrator if caught - pedophiles seem to have no forethought of the consequences of their actions. This behavior is truly consistent with the elaboration Million gives to the behavioral domain of antisocial personality disorder. Next, we have the interpersonal domain. Millon contends that \\\\\\\"with time as the individual adapts to his/her environment, different personality styles will become differentially prominent and latent potentialities are shaped into adaptive and manifest styles of perceiving, feeling, thinking and acting. It is these distinctive modes of adaptation, engendered by the interaction of biological endowment and social experience that Millon identifies as ‘personality styles’ (Millon, 1996). Using Millon\\\\\\\'s theory as thhe basis for identifying patterns of interpersonal patterns and behaviors, we understand the stereotypical structures of personalities based on the generic and common ways that the stereotyped ndividuals deal with situations. Here, ‘irresponsible’, as Craig (2005) observes, is the general description of an antisocial. To be more specific, the antisocial in this case exhibits irresponsible tendencies and has a habit of failing to honor obligations. Further, he displays other poor interpersonal relationship skills such as deceitfulness and failure to honor or respect the space and rights of other people. The inability of an antisocial to abide by specific and well-defined social codes is remarkable. It is important to note that, in essence, the society expects adults to not only protect but also nature children. This is more so the case given their vulnerable nature. A pedophile goes against this social code of conduct. The behavior they exhibit is not only irresponsible, but also against the expectations of the general public. This is a clear case of an inherent inability to honor or respect social expectations. Cases appearing in the media over time have also exposed the deceitful nature of pedophiles. The said deceitfulness is exhibited in the form of luring their victims and in covering their tracks after committing the offense. Towards this end, therefore, it is clear that the behavior of pedophiles matches the highlights of this particular domain of psychopath conduct. Furthermore, Millon contends that \\\\\\\"cognitive activities may be separated into two superordinate functions, viz. sources of information and transformational processes. Sources of information, i.e. how individuals gain information about their world, is separated into external versus internal and tangible versus intangible. External versus internal can be linked to the self-other polarity espoused earlier in that sources of information can originate external to the self or internally. This distinction provides the first pair of cognitive modes scales, viz. Extraversing and Introversing\\\\\\\" (Millon, 1996). This first pair of the cognitive approach when it comes to the phenomenological domain is, according to Craig (2005), reported as being ‘deviant.’ It is important to note that those who harbor antisocial tendencies tend to have a different perspective of events from that of normal persons. Their morals as well as beliefs tend to be manifestly unusual, unconventional, and in most cases perverse. With this in mind, it is important to note that the conduct and behavior of pedophiles is not only bizarre, but also anomalous. Their desires and resulting actions could be termed deviant. It is this cognitive deviancy amongst pedophiles that links their behaviors to the descriptors of antisocial personality disorders. Millon further explains that \\\\\\\"apart from an external or internal orientation towards gaining information individuals also select information based on the nature of the information – tangible versus intangible. Some individuals tend to be more receptive of information that is well structured and tangible while others are more receptive to information that is obscure and intangible. This second of Millon’s sources of information gives rise to the second pair of cognitive modes scales, viz. Sensing versus Intuiting\\\\\\\" (Millon, 1996). In line with this apptoach in Millon\\\\\\\'s theory we will next discuss the concept of \\\\\\\'debased\\\\\\\' which is the term used when describing antisocial object representation domain. In this case, the representation of other people in the mind of an antisocial tends to be diminished. He doesnt sense their presence as important as opposed to when it can fulfil hia desire. It is this same diminished perspective of children that pedophiles tend to have. In that regard, therefore, they use the child to satisfy their sexual desires without any regard to the emotional and/or physical pain the said child experiences. The fifth domain is the self-image. Here, the general domain description according to Craig (2005) is ‘autonomous.’ Antisocial persons in this case do not feel bound by expectations as a consequence of longstanding relationships, friendships etc. They desire a free and unconfined nature and do not feel the need for personal loyalties or allegiances. Pedophiles have been shown to have no respect for boundaries and the fact that there have been instances where they have exploited their own relatives, friend’s children, etc. is a clear indication of this fact. The intrapsychic and morphological domains could also be matched to pedophile descriptors – with the former domain postulating that that the antisocial is likely to ‘act out’ and the former pointing towards an ‘unruly’ behavior. With regard to ‘acting out’, there is little or no restraint when it comes to the adaptation or modulation of thoughts and/or behavior. Pedophiles demonstrate little or no constraint in the attunement of their offensive thoughts as well as actions. ‘Unruly’ behavior, on the other hand, has got to do with the demonstration of quite a low threshold for behaviors as well as thoughts that could be seen as being intolerant and unfortunate. Those who abuse children sexually could be said to be having an unhealthy inclination towards pervasive behavior. Lastly, there is the biosocial domain, which according to Craig (2005) describes those exhibiting antisocial behavior as being cold-hearted, unfeeling, and callous. They are also unlikely to display any contrition or sorrow. This is consistent with the tendency of pedophiles to exhibit unacceptable behavior towards children - with their actions fitting the description of callous and cold-hearted. Lack of remorse makes their behaviors habitual. In the final analysis, it should be noted that the fact that there is an overlap of sorts between the personality traits of pedophiles and the domains put forth by Millon offers us an opportunity to tackle the child abuse monster in our contemporary society. This is despite the fact in this case, two spectrum disorders are being examined. A discussion of this nature is not only timely, but also relevant, especially given that the problem cuts across all cultures and its impact spreads across many generations. Given the psychopathic-like characteristics of pedophiles, Millon’s domains could be used to understand the modus operandi of a pedophile so as to design the most effective intervention measures. This is more so the case given that as Millon and Davis (1996) point out, psychiatric disorders “may be better understood as dimensions of general personality functioning rather than as discrete illness categories.” Culture and Theory of Million It is important to note here that while the nature and existence of pedophiles is obvious in all cultures, the cultural indexes and differences make it impossible for one theory to be completely and holistically applicable across all cultures. This is precisely why Millon\\\\\\\"s theory too has its deficiencies in cross cultural applicability. However, it does have some utility across cultures that cant be denied. The modes of cognitive development is one aspect of Millon\\\\\\\'s theory that can be applied across all cultures and can be applicable in the modern era. as well. However, culture is a term that has too many variations and thus cannot be boxed into one theory. While Millon\\\\\\\'s theory does rake into account all the holistic aspects of intrapsychic, cognitive and interpersonal dimensions of personality (primarily as a response to the fact that mosr other theories of personality were lacking in these areas), it still isnt a complete approach and needs much improvement to be as inclusive as as to have significant cross cultural utility.