Character Analysis: Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder, also known as psychopathy or sociopathy, is surrounded by exaggerated myths and stories. When we think of this disorder, we picture someone who is a criminal, with an absolute lack of conscience, scary eyes, and violent tendencies. But is that all there is to the disorder?

Personality Traits:

Antisocial Personality Disorder is essentially an attachment disorder and people who have it exhibit a dismissive-avoidant attachment style. The typical characteristic of someone with the disorder is a strong desire for power and control. This, however, does not necessarily manifest in the form of seeking money or status, but more so as a desire for mental and emotional resilience.

A psychopath is an individual who seeks freedom from emotional bonds with other people because in his world view dependency, trust, love, and affection all lead to helplessness and are traps to be avoided.¹ People with this disorder don’t like to be or want to be attached to anyone, because they perceive attachment as a weakness and something people will use against them to try to subjugate them. As a result, they tend to hide weaknesses and vulnerabilities and be hypervigilant towards any sign that someone else is controlling them. They don’t want to be controlled by other people or societal norms and standards.

Origins:

Psychopathy is an attachment disorder and all attachment disorders result from childhood trauma. Early adverse experiences in any form can affect a child’s ability to attach to a primary caregiver.

Emotions are not only critical for survival but also their development depends on the child’s interaction with his environment and caregivers. In other words, children develop emotions through their relationships with their caregivers. If the primary caregiver is responsive to the child’s needs, the child starts to reach out and trust more and his brain eventually learns to relate to people and form secure attachments. On the other hand, children who have been raised in any condition that doesn’t allow for healthy attachments, miss out on a key developmental stage of the brain. Psychopathy is a primitive disorder where the brain is so underdeveloped that the emotional range of someone with the disorder is very shallow.

Shallow Affect:

Someone with shallow affect is in a neutral and unemotional state most of the time but events can trigger an emotional reaction for them. And it’s not a case of not being able to feel certain emotions but more that they are short-lived and not very intense. So, psychopaths can feel fear and anxiety but it’s more of a physical reaction they would feel it in their stomach and not something long-lasting. Most of their feelings are experienced as thoughts only. In other words, they can feel anxiety in the form of paranoia and hypervigilance but they are rarely “emotionally” anxious. Recreational drugs and alcohol don’t work on psychopaths effectively either. They can feel high but they don’t get the happy euphoric feelings induced by these drugs to the same extent normal people do. Despite the fact that they have a tendency to abuse substances, they don’t suffer from withdrawals like normal people either.²

Intimate Relationships:

Contrary to popular belief, psychopaths are unlikely to use physical violence towards their partners, friends, and family.³ The abuse they perpetrate is usually instrumental, where they want to gain something like material goods or is in the form of emotional neglect. They tend to deny any feelings of dependency and emphasise how little they care about their partners. For example, they might act completely unconcerned in regard to their partners’ whereabouts and well-being. Jealousy and possessiveness would indicate dependency and a level of care, whereas indifference would imply detachment. By making sure they are always presenting an indifferent façade and going out of their way to prove that they are not emotionally attached to anyone, psychopaths make their partners feel not worthy of being loved and cared for.

References:

[1]: Meloy, J. R. (Ed.). (2001). The Mark of Cain: Psychoanalytic Insight and the Psychopath. The Analytic Press/Taylor & Francis Group

[2]: Cope, L. M., Vincent, G. M., Jobelius, J. L., Nyalakanti, P. K., Calhoun, V. D., & Kiehl, K. A. (2014). Psychopathic traits modulate brain responses to drug cues in incarcerated offenders. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 87. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00087

[3]: Williamson, S., Hare, R. D., & Wong, S. (1987). Violence: Criminal psychopaths and their victims. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 19(4), 454–462. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0080003