Lack of Empathy - Exploring the different conditions associated with a lack of compassion starting with Antisocial Personality Disorder

People always love to ask the question "Without empathy, how do we exist?" as some kind of great gotcha question. These people, however, seem to forget that people who lack empathy are actually a real thing and not something that was only made up in a fantasy story. In fact, there are a bunch of people out in the world now, even in a time where it is easier than ever to get help with mental conditions, who probably see compassion and not screwing over other living creatures or their fellow man as more of a suggestion than a rule.

So, how many people are out there who are not empathetic? It is hard to say since there are a lot of humans out there, many different conditions that are associated with a lack of empathy, and most of these conditions require multiple studies to accurately measure. With all of that said, you can work to try to figure out what different conditions exist with a lack of empathy and how they function, starting with ASPD!

ASPD - or antisocial personality disorder - is a mental condition and personality disorder and untreated versions of this disorder can be found in about two to three percent of adults in the world, which is about one in fifty adults to one in thirty-three adults respectively This personality problem can lead to many behavioral problems like inclinations towards animal cruelty and an inclination to be impulsive. They also tend to have problems with laws and rules with the exception of rules that make it easier to hurt and control others.

Antisocial Personality Disorder also goes by other names such as psychopathic personality disorder and sociopathic personality disorder. However, those names are now considered clinical terms and are no longer used in actual medicine. The term psychopath came before antisocial personality disorder and was popularized in Germany back in 1891 by German psychiatrists, but the term ASPD became the more official term over time. Same thing with the term sociopath - it has been around since 1880 and was first used in the United States as a medical term in 1930, but ASPD eventually became the term of choice by those practicing medicine.

The causes of antisocial personality disorder can be both genetic and environmental, so for some it is a thing related to your genes and for others, it is caused by your environment. It is believed about fifty percent of cases of ASPD are genetic and caused by DNA. Meanwhile, the other fifty percent is the environment and being acted on by their community or factors outside of themselves.

Citations:

- "Antisocial Personality Disorder | MentalHealth.gov". mentalhealth.gov.

- Baker LA, Bezdjian S, Raine A (1 January 2006). "Behavioral Genetics: The Science of Antisocial Behavior". Law and Contemporary Problems. 69 (1–2): 7–46. PMC 2174903. PMID 18176636.

- Flaherty, Joseph A.. "antisocial personality disorder". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/science/antisocial-personality-disorder. Accessed 12 March 2024.

- Hyde, Luke W.; Waller, Rebecca; Trentacosta, Christopher J.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Ganiban, Jody M.; Reiss, David; Leve, Leslie D. (2016-04-08). "Heritable and Nonheritable Pathways to Early Callous-Unemotional Behaviors". American Journal of Psychiatry. 173 (9): 903–910. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15111381. ISSN 0002-953X. PMC 5008992. PMID 27056607.

- Medlineplus Psychopath Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine or Psychopathy Archived

- "Psychopathy". Online Etymology Dictionary

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- Rutter, Steve (2007). The Psychopath: Theory, Research, and Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8058-6079-5.