The Spectrum of the Societal Effects of Personality Disorders and Mental Illnesses

Personality disorders and mental illnesses are viewed by the general public as similar attributes that are equally harmful. However, when one delves into the diagnostics and patterns of the individual disorders and illnesses, it can be seen that there are major differences between each one. There are many levels of severity of the effects each disorder or illness has on society as a whole. They range from affecting only the individual on a solely personal basis to affecting a large amount of people on a highly violent level. Generally, it is found that mental illnesses have an influence on an individual level while personality disorders have an influence on a widespread level. As in every medical topic, there are outliers, or cases that are far outside the expected outcome, but for the most part, illnesses have less far reaching effects than disorders. On the spectrum of the societal effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses, the obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is actually a mental illness, is on the lowest level in terms of widespread consequences; just above this illness is schizophrenia which has the ability to affect more than the individual unless treated; the narcissistic disorder has farther reaching effects in society, such as in bureaucratic situations, than the two previously mentioned illnesses, placing it higher on the spectrum, and last, but not least, the schizoid personality disorder has proven to have the most wide spread consequences in the form of both emotional trauma and violence allocating it the highest level.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is placed on the lowest level of spectrum of the effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, is a...

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...pent up feelings of apathy and detachment make it simple for an individual to remove themselves from their actions and take out their feelings of neglect on those completely undeserving. This is exemplified no better than in the case of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassinator of John F. Kennedy. As a child, Oswald was neglected by his parents. During a medical exam during his teenage years, he was diagnosed with a “personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features” that had been caused by “existing under emotional isolation and deprivation” (Hartogs). Had Oswald not had a schizoid personality, perhaps Kennedy would have lived to serve our country. The combination of the never ending cycle of indifference and the outbursts of rage put the schizoid personality disorder and the top of the spectrum of the societal effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses.