Antisocial personality: definition, types, signs, methods of behavior correction

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In a separate group of people, the dominant and most often manifested personality motives are the lack of morality, a sense of responsibility, and interest in others. The behavior of such a person almost completely satisfies only his needs.

In the medical and psychological literature, such a personality is referred to as "anti-social", "psychopathic" or "sociopathic". It should be noted that these concepts cannot be fully identified with the criminal orientation of a person. Beyond that, the term "antisocial personality" is not a medical diagnosis. This is just a certain psychological type of a person who has a problem with morality. These people have almost no conscience. And if an ordinary person from childhood begins to understand that people's behavior has some limitations, and that everyone has to deny himself pleasure from time to time for the sake of the interests of others, then antisocial types take into account only their own desires. They always behaveimpulsively, striving for the immediate achievement of their goals.

Psychopathic anti-social personalities are very different from those around them. They have been given more courage and opportunity. They constantly take risks and break the rules, doing things that others simply cannot do. At the same time, a person who is an antisocial personality is very interesting and bright. Others are drawn to him. And the one who met such a person on his way will never be able to forget him.

An anti-social personality, or a sociopath, is not at all an intimidating maniac holding an ax in his hands. Such people can perfectly imitate normality recognized in society. Nevertheless, direct contact with an antisocial personality threatens us with a ruined life and psychological trauma. That is why it is so important to recognize such a person at the very beginning of interaction with him.

Definition of concept

How briefly can you describe an anti-social personality? Sociopathic disorder is now referred to by specialists as mental pathologies. This distortion has to do with disturbances in the relationship between the human super-ego and the ego. The first of them, which is a critical instance, can either be not fully formed or be too harsh, that is, punishing. In addition, the ego-ideal, which is part of the super-ego, in such people, as a rule, contains identifications directed against social bonds.

Psychologist N. McWilliams describes an antisocial sociopathic personality through the prism of a pronounced need to feel power overother people. This manifests itself in the form of a desire to influence others and manipulate them. This allows the anti-social personality to rise above other people. Many experts note that such a person is deprived of the ability for human affection.

Professional focus

The degree of social adaptation of such a person may be different. To determine it, A. Aichron introduced the concepts of explicit delinquency, as well as latent. As for the first option, in this case a person shows anti-social actions. In the second, such a state exists, but does not appear outwardly.

For an antisocial personality, illegal motivation and the commission of crimes are not at all mandatory conditions. For example, such people may be representatives of highly respected professions. These are surgeons, judges and educators who, more than others, show a tendency to control and pressure. In this case, there is a combination of their individuality with the interests of society.

Scientific explanation of sociopath behavior

In psychoanalysis, the antisocial personality type is considered from the point of view of the impossibility of resolving a person's internal conflicts. Such people deliberately cut off ties with reality and escape from inner reality by committing prohibited actions, which are often prosecuted by law and suppressed by the state.

The main psychological defense of sociopathic people is their omnipotent control. In addition, they use projective identification, acting out, and many of the mostvarious dissociative processes.

However, the ability to exert pressure is of paramount importance in such people. It is she who protects them from shame. This is especially true for rude psychopaths.

With delinquent behavior taking place, antisocial individuals often project their personal negative qualities onto society. For them, the world around them starts to look much worse than it really is.

Sociopaths' lack of conscience isn't just about their defective super-ego. Such a trait clearly indicates a lack of primary mutual attachments to people. For sociopaths, the main value of the person next to you lies in his explicit or unconscious consent to endure "slaps".

How to recognize an anti-social personality?

The main thing to remember about such people is that they tend to break the rules. And absolutely anyone. Of course, this ability helps them to create something new, earn money, promote a service or product, and also boldly set off on the path that other people did not follow because of their fear or embarrassment. However, a similar trait appears in sociopaths when they violate established rules and norms.

Let's consider some examples that indicate the main typological signs of an antisocial personality orientation:

1. Non-compliance with agreements. In short, the antisocial personality has very big problems with this. Problems. The fact is that antisocials are very afraid of being trapped in circumstances and being responsible for something. That is why they will try not to make any promises, keeping silent, giving vague answers, dodging and cunning, or simply will not comply with the agreements. Sometimes sociopaths do keep their promises. However, they do this until such time as they receive personal benefit from it.
2. Non-compliance with traffic rules. An asocial driver can be identified from afar. He drives his car very dangerously, rushing through the streets at breakneck speed and cutting off other cars. Such drivers park exactly where they see fit.
3. Adulty. Antisocials very often cheat on their soulmate or deceive their partner in some other way. In a relationship, a sociopath necessarily has a desire to use. It is simply impossible for them to build personal ties on mutual respect and interest. Antisocial individuals will always try to deceive, manipulate and deceive.
4. Lack of loy alty to loved ones. Friendship and cooperation among such people are built purely on considerations of their own benefit. If there is interest, the anti-social will always be nearby. But as soon as a person is no longer needed, he will immediately set up, betray and leave.
5. Failure to comply with ethical standards. The antisocial person is not embarrassed by the fact that he is deceiving someone and that his actions may have harmful and dangerous consequences for others. For example, it could be advertising yourself as an expert in a certain field. At the same time, the sociopath will not even have the necessary education.
6. Breaking laws. Such people most often become criminals.
7. Ignoring the psychological boundaries of the people around. Antisocials can always put a person in an awkward position, read his correspondence, enter the room without knocking, disrupt other people's plans, force others to do what they do not want.

Nature endowed sociopaths not only with a tendency to break the rules, but also with high intelligence. Thanks to their abilities, such people may well become swindlers and successful businessmen, wonderful PR people and journalists, gigolos, thieves and policemen. In other words, such talent is applicable in a variety of areas. And not necessarily destructive. For example, antisocial personalities make excellent police officers. After all, in order to successfully catch criminals, you need to think like them.

Character Traits

Let's consider the main signs of an antisocial personality. Such people have the following characteristics:

1. Very charismatic. It is easy to fall in love with such people, because their appearance and behavior are designed to arouse interest among others. Sociopaths seem bright and unforgettable, extraordinary and successful.
2. Most often belong to the we althy segments of society. And this is not at all because money spoiled them, but because of a well-developed ability to profit. Sociopaths take everything they want from the world, meet influential people and acquire the necessary connections. Their main goal is power, as well as expensive things andmoney, in a word, everything that elevates them above the rest.
3. Their revenge is much stronger than their resentment. Sometimes an outsider who has not even done anything wrong to an asocial person gets under attack. However, she is already beginning to take revenge in advance. For example, an antisocial husband will hit his wife if she does not serve him dinner on time. At the same time, he will be completely sure that he is right. After all, he was offended! The sociopath will not even think to correlate his actions with what happened.
4. Prone to risk. It seems that the antisocial personality has practically no instinct for self-preservation. Often such people are not indifferent to dangerous hobbies and adventures, alcohol, drugs and gambling. From the outside, it seems that they do not value their own lives at all or believe that they will certainly emerge victorious from all situations. And this despite the fact that the one who is nearby is suffering or endangered.

It is worth noting that it is sociopaths who most often buy convertibles to ride them only in the warm season. They will be able to shock on the first date and forever crash into memory. Only asocials, not having a stable income, will buy the most expensive clothes. It is also not worth guessing for a long time what type of personality a lady belongs to, who, without a twinge of conscience, will hang herself on other people's husbands in the presence of their wives. Yes, all this refers to the description of the character of an antisocial person.

Sociopaths and society

Anti-social personalities can disguise themselves perfectly as "normal" people. That's why they don't hesitatesociety and are even drawn to it. However, despite the fact that such people immediately attract attention and look charming, you should not be deceived. After all, their charisma is just an external mask, which they put on and take off quite easily.

Most often, sociopaths speak in broad generalizations. In their speech, you can constantly hear such phrases: "Everyone knows …", "Everyone thinks …", etc. This is how sociopaths transmit rumors. If, however, to clarify: “Who is this - everyone?”, Then they point to only one source, presenting his words as the opinion of society as a whole. For such people it is natural. After all, sociopaths consider society a huge enemy camp that is set against them.

Apart from this, anti-social people like to spread bad news, give spiteful and critical remarks, devalue, and also suppress. Such people are called "bad messengers", "rumor spreaders" and "gossips". Interestingly, sociopaths don't deliver good news. They also don't make complimentary remarks.

By passing messages and news, anti-socials tend to change their content only for the worse. They delay good news and let only bad news pass, often flavored with their own inventions.

Most often, such a person is surrounded by frightened friends and relatives. Even if they are not brought to real madness. However, their behavior in life is deficient, and they tend to fail and fail. People who are close to anti-socials are not able to show stable results in school or intreatment. The thing is that they are under overwhelming influence, because of which they quickly fall ill or lose the benefits that the acquired knowledge gives them.

People who are close to antisocial do not feel improvement in their condition in the process of therapeutic treatment. In addition, they respond poorly to rehabilitation measures. It is simply useless to teach and treat people close to asocials. Nor will friendly participation help them.

A lot of mentally ill people are insane just because of their ties to sociopaths. For the same reason, it is difficult for them to recover. At the same time, it is almost impossible to meet an antisocial personality among patients in psychiatric hospitals. Only their relatives and friends are in these institutions.

Anti-social personalities like to pick the wrong targets. For example, if the tire is punctured, then the nail will not be the culprit, but the satellite or other non-existent source. And the reaction to the loudly turned on radio from the neighbors is kicking their own cat, etc.

It is difficult for a sociopath to complete the cycle of his actions. That is why he is surrounded by unfinished business.

Anti-social individuals who turn to crime tend to freely admit to committing their worst atrocities if forced to do so. At the same time, they do not feel any responsibility for what they have done. This is where the anti-social orientation and social danger of the personality of the criminal lies. After all, his actions have nothing to do with his own decision or choice. Sociopaths' explanation suggests that it "just happened." These people don't feelthe connection that always exists between a cause and its effect. So, they never feel shame or remorse.

Only those groups that are engaged in destruction use the support of an asocial personality. In relation to those people who strive for improvement and constructive action, while creating communities, such a person experiences resentment and rage, often attacking them.

An anti-social's sense of ownership is practically absent. He believes that the idea of people that one of them is capable of owning something is only a swindle, fiction and pretense. In his opinion, nothing can be someone's property.

Criminal Sociopaths

People who commit illegal acts are distributed by criminologists into separate typological groups. Such a classification exists according to the nature of their antisocial orientation. Existing value orientations are also considered. The personality type of the offender by the nature of the antisocial orientation is:

1. Selfish. In this case, there is not only a desire for enrichment. Important for such a person are the means leading to the achievement of the goal. This type of personality unites persons who commit fraud, robbery, robbery, theft and other types of theft, which are also malfeasance.

2. Violent. This type of personality includes people who have committed rape, hooliganism, murder, etc. The motives for committing such crimes are revenge, jealousy, etc.

3. Neglecting the duties assigned to a person under an agreement or law.

Reasons for the development of sociopathy

Today there is no exact answer to the question of where antisocial personalities come from.

Psychologists put forward three versions of such reasons:

• environment and family;
• heredity;
• Childhood head trauma or stress.

According to most experts, the main cause of the disease are genetic defects. However, it is not known which disorder causes sociopathy.

The process of asocialization

Living in a society, each person learns its values, norms and rules. But the anti-social personality considered in sociology is one that neglects everything that is aimed at the normal functioning and stabilization of the state and relations between people. At the same time, she pays more attention to negative attitudes, roles and stereotypes of behavior. The ongoing process of assimilation by a person of antisocial antisocial norms leads to the deformation of the ties that exist in society. The consequence of this is the destabilization of the state.

The process of assimilation by a person of antisocial antisocial norms can go in two ways. The first of them arises at a particular stage in the development of a person who is under the influence of a criminal group, a yard company or a negative microenvironment. This processis called "desocialization". In this case, instead of positive values and norms, a person establishes new ones - negative ones.

It is also possible to lag behind in socialization. This process is expressed in the untimely assimilation by the individual of positive patterns of behavior and norms prescribed by society.

Treatment

What are the methods of dealing with sociopathy? It is worth noting that such a disorder cannot be completely cured, because such a person considers his behavior normal and does not see any shortcomings in it.

It is only possible to conduct psychotherapy of an antisocial personality with correction of the manifestation of the disorder. In this case, a person acquires the ability to take into account the wishes of loved ones and observe the norms of behavior prescribed by society.

We have briefly reviewed the antisocial personality and its characteristics.