Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Sociopath's Brain

A good looking man in an expensive suite walks past a woman on the subway whistling a catchy tune. Many thoughts begin to run through her head, “He’s an important business man on his way to his next meeting.” Or “He’s a father on the way home from work.” As he stops she watches him read a news paper thinking how attractive and self composed he is. In the back of her head she’s wishing that he would speak to her. As she sits and hopes it seems that her wish is going to be answered. The young, attractive gentleman gets up and strides over taking the seat next to her. He introduces himself as Mr. Cromer and engages her in a charming conversation, sweeping her off her feet. In her head everything is going great, she has met the perfect man, all the while she hasn’t noticed that he has lead her to the door of a warehouse. By the time she realizes where she is it is too late, he has her now. As she begins to scream he shoves her in the building ending all hope. Mr. Cromer actually suffers from a severe case of antisocial personality disorder and has developed a bad habit of abducting, raping and killing women followed by an ostentatious dinner often buying dinks and food for others in the restaurant or bar to which he leaves without every paying. Those who suffer from personality disorders will not necessarily all become killers or rapists but most do participate in illegal activity of some sort. Antisocial personality disorder, also known as sociopathy or psychopathy, is often described as the person lacking any and all morals; they have no conscience. Often these individuals have difficulty or inability to feel empathy for others and as a result they do as they please, not conforming to social norms like the majority of the population...

... middle of paper ...

...ey still commit count less crimes against society and fail to conform to any societal norms. Many perspectives have been trying to better explain what causes this disorder but the close we have gotten is correlation. Like with any disease there are multiple contributing factors so researchers need to take and eclectic approach and hopefully one day we will find a simple answer for this complex disorder that will lead to an effective treatment.

Works Cited

Haglin, R. P. & Whitbourne, S. K. (2010). Abnormal psychology: clinical perspectives on psychological disorders. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Moran, P. (1999). The epidemiology of antisocial personality disorder. Institute of Psychiatry, (34), 231-242.

Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.