Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) falls under the broader category of personality disorders. In contrast to other classifications of mental disorders, personality disorders have the characteristic of being chronic, often times persisting from as early as the teenage years on through adulthood. The term antisocial, colloquially employed, is typically ascribed to people who simply show varying degrees of aversion to socializing, or to people who might demonstrate a more reserved or quiet nature. As a psychologically defined personality disorder, however, the term signifies a graver set of circumstances.
All personality disorders manifest some form of maladjustment to society. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines antisocial personality disorder as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.” Symptoms of the condition include, disregard to normative patterns of behavior, deception, impulsiveness, absence of remorse, irresponsibility, aggressiveness, quick temperedness and reckless abandonment. Any behavior that features at least three of the symptoms is grounds to consider a diagnosis of ASPD.
Research into the causes of antisocial personality disorder has revealed that the condition is generated by the influence of environmental forces and genetic factors. The former can serve to either suppress or stimulate the inherent nature portion of the condition. For example, given that a child is possessed of the genetic predisposition to ASPD and that their upbringing is fraught with violence and abuse, it is more likely that they would develop the disorder at some point in the future. The converse of the example, namely that a child is raised in a loving and nurturing home, would suppress the hereditary influences that put them at risk of acquiring the condition in the future.
The symptoms associated with this disorder exhibit themselves in a variety of behavioral patterns. According to the Mayo Clinic, sufferers of this condition can develop criminal tendencies, engage in alcohol or drug abuse, have problems behaving at school, become addicted to gambling, display suicidal habits, act violent with others or undertake risky sexual conduct. Getting a proper diagnosis of the disorder can pose difficulties. Any of the aforementioned behaviors associated with the condition do not in themselves warrant a case of antisocial personality disorder. It is important that assessments are conducted with the utmost attention to discovering a formal set of behavioral patterns and symptomatic emotions characteristic of ASPD.
Treatment for ASPD has been centered on psychotherapy. Because the condition is based on an estrangement between behavior and emotion, psychotherapy can help to bring out the feelings that had hitherto been absent. The goal is to establish and direct emotional responses to behavioral patterns that are less threatening and antagonistic to the welfare of the social environment. Group therapy has proven to be relatively ineffective in treating antisocial personality disorder. The very nature of the condition puts the patient, vis à vis the group, into a situation that serves to trigger their nonconformity. One on one therapy sessions, premised on an atmosphere of trust and free from threatening rhetoric, disposes the patient to opening up about his or her feelings. Fortunately, ASPD is a rare condition. Only three to five percent of men and one percent of women suffer from the mental disorder.