Hey everybody.
Today I want to talk to you about the word Psychopath.
What does it mean?
People throw it around a lot, right.
So stay tuned.
So the term Psychopath.
Or Sociopath.
What does it really mean?
We throw that term around a lot, right.
In media, especially, if they catch a serial killer.
Or they catch someone doing something that's really horrific and deceitful and they are like,
'That person's a psychopath. They are crazy.'
But when it comes to a clinician standpoint.
Or professional standpoint.
I can't actually give someone the diagnosis of 'psychopath' or 'sociopath' or 'just darn crazy'.
Because that's not how it works, right.
But if I was to give someone a diagnosis.
I thought that they were being really horrifically deceitful, manipulative, harming other people.
I would give them the diagnosis of Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
So what is Anti-Social Personality Disorder?
Just like any other Personality Disorder.
It's something that I can't diagnose until someone's 18.
That's because they believe personality disorders are something that is pervasive.
It invades all sorts of parts of our lives.
And it's something that we really have to work on.
In order to manage it.
Or overcome it.
But I can, if they are not 18,
I can diagnose them with Conduct Disorder.
Because when it comes to diagnosing Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
Someone has to have already had Conduct Disorder.
Or met the criteria for it.
And they have to have that onset before age 15.
So conduct disorder.
The way that I remembered it when I was studying for my exams.
Was the C in Conduct Disorder stands for committing crimes.
When we are teenagers, we can be really obnoxious and rude.
And we can, you know, just annoy those around us.
But we don't commit crimes.
Someone with Conduct Disorder is really deceitful.
They lie a lot.
A lot of kind of societal norms and beliefs and laws that are in place.
They don't believe in them.
They don't abide by them.
They have their own set of 'rules'.
And they may even put someone else in danger.
For their own personal gain.
So that's something that has to have already been happening.
They may even hurt animals.
We have heard people who are later, you know they shoot up a movie theatre or they are a serial killer.
And we find out later that when they were young they used to kill rabbits or bunnies or their family dog or cat.
That's something that is very common.
Prior to being able to diagnose this.
Okay so my client is 18 years old.
They have already been diagnosed with Conduct Disorder.
How do I know for sure they have Anti-Social Personality Disorder?
Now I want to read you the description that they give in the DSM.
Because I think it does the best, it's the best description available for this.
And it goes like this.
It says that Anti-Social Personality Disorder is a pervasive
Pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.
That begins in childhood and continues on into adulthood.
This pattern has been referred to as 'Psychopathy' and 'Sociopathy'.
So that's the thing that I love about the DSM.
Is it gives us some information to kind of work around.
Like it's also been called this.
People have done this.
People might say this is a milder form of something but it's really not.
But the most important thing to remember about people who have this diagnosis.
Is that manipulation and lying is the core of their issue.
So if I was working with a patient who I assumed had this.
It would be critically important for me to get information from a lot of different collateral resources.
So I want to talk to their teachers.
Their parents.
Their friends, if they have any.
Often times they don't have any people they'd call 'friends'.
They have other people that think of themselves as their friend.
But relationships with others isn't something that they place a lot of value on.
They see relationships with others as a way for them to maybe gain more.
Like I was saying before with Conduct Disorder.
The same happens with Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
Where they will put someone else in danger as a way to save themselves.
Or to parley themselves into something else.
It's almost like in business.
When they say they would walk over you to get to the top.
This person would definitely do that.
They don't place any worth on anyone else except for themselves.
So it can be something.
Obviously it can be very devastating.
People that have this tend to be the serial killer type.
But only one percent of the population actually has Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
That's not a very big percent.
And of that percentage.
I would venture to say that the ones that actually commit murders and are serial killers.
Is even lower.
I mean if you think back to the people that you have even heard in your life time.
It's probably only a handful of people.
So just because someone has this diagnosis.
Doesn't make them dangerous.
But it does mean that they are predisposed to not value anyone but themselves.
So it's something that we definitely need to recognise.
Especially as a clinician.
The sooner I can recognise that someone is struggling with this.
The better outcome there can be.
And the safety of others.
Because as I have talked about before.
Just having the insight into the way that our mind works.
And the way that things are going in our lives.
Is the first step.
And the most important step.
To managing it better.
Just like any other personality disorder.
We can manage our symptoms.
The more we know about it.
The better we can manage, right.
Now I hope that that clears it up.
Because just like a lot of the other things that I talk about.
People throw terms around without actually knowing what they mean.
So next time somebody says to you,
'That person's a psychopath'.
You can say, 'Ah-ha. That doesn't actually exist.'
'They really have Anti-Social Personality Disorder.'
We learnt something new today.
Right.
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I'll see you next time.
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