Antisocial Personality Disorder

Reboot Your Relationship Radio

May 2013

Joe Whitcomb & Savannah Ellis

“Personality Disorders & Relationships” – The Antisocial Personality Disorder

This week, we’re talking about Antisocial Personality Disorder. And I will get into the definition, the criteria, the cause of this particular personality type. And then we’ll talk a little bit about Antisocial Personality Type and Disorder versus a Psychopath, versus a Sociopath because all of these terms have been used interchangeably. So we’ll talk about that and then lastly, we will talk about some treatment strategies for this group of individuals. Now I hope over the weeks that we’ve been discussing personality types, that you recognize that everyone has a personality. And everyone has components (myself included) of these various disorders. So you can have aspects of a personality disorder but not have a diagnosis or a clinical problem that would cause you to maybe not have the healthiest marriage or maybe not have the healthiest work situation. All of these personality types probably affect many of us in different ways or we can relate to one or two aspects of it. Some can relate to more than others, but the point being that these types of personality traits are ones that many of us share and don’t necessarily have to be a problem. They become a problem when they affect our day to day functioning. When they affect our relationships, our work situation, when they affect our school situation or our ability to complete our schooling, that’s when they become a problem.

And also, I’ve talked about the different treatment strategies and the treatment approaches. I also want you to appreciate and realize that you can modify aspects of a personality. I see it everyday. I see people changing aspects of their persona. Not an easy task, it requires certainly a commitment to change, a motivation and a desire for change, but it also requires some concrete, tangible strategies. And that’s part of what I do in my therapy office, is give people awareness, insight but also behavioral change strategies because they need that if they are going to make a change.

So we’re talking about Antisocial Personality today. A lot of people misperceive what this particular type of personality looks like. It is not someone who is not very social. It’s not someone who is more withdrawn, more detached, more isolated. There are aspects of that but that’s not really what captures this particular personality type. So let me give you the definition as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. It’s a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood and early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Deceit and manipulation are considered essential features of this disorder.

Typically in order to be given this particular diagnosis, the person needs to be eighteen or older. If it’s before eighteen, then it would be considered a conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is typically for under fifteen, but it’s typically for an adolescent or someone younger than that, that is going through some problems, some rebellion, acting out, maybe they are getting in trouble with the law. They are in trouble because they are maybe using drugs or alcohol.

Now sociopath and psychopath have been used interchangeably with Antisocial Personality Type, but technically, they are different. And I will talk about those differences later on in the program.

Now this disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of disregard for other people’s rights. These individuals often cross the line and violate those rights. Whether it is other people’s rights, whether it is society’s rights or norms, and a failure to conform to the social norms with respect to the law and a lot of these individuals often have been arrested for something where they have violated the law. There’s also deceitfulness – repeated lying, cunning people for personal profit or pleasure. These individuals tend to be impulsive, or they fail to plan ahead or look at the possible consequences of their actions. They tend to be irritable and aggressive, they might get into physical confrontations, and fights and assaults. They also have a reckless disregard for the safety of themselves and of others. They’re consistently irresponsible. And their irresponsibility may show in not being consistent at work, not meeting financial obligations. They maybe late to work a lot or they may call and sick a lot. They also lack remorse. These individuals do not have a developed conscience. They do not experience a whole lot of guilt for some of their behaviors. So they’re indifferent about how other people might be affected. And they tend to rationalize their hurt or mistreatment of others. So those are some of the criteria associated with Antisocial Personality.

As I’ve mentioned, these people, not only are they manipulative but they can come across as superficially charming. So a lot of times when people think of an anti-social personality, they think of a criminal, and many of these individuals are criminals. Many of these individuals are in jail or have  been arrested for something, but some of them, have not. And some of them are in position of power. And they can come across as charming and they can be very manipulative, and they can be very impulsive in their decision-making sometimes, you know at the point of being reckless. They have a hard time maintaining friendships. They have a hard time maintaining long-term relationships like a marriage. And they don’t have good control over their emotions. So they blurt things out when they are angry or annoyed or irritable. They might be very impatient. They tend to be abusive – maybe verbally abusive, maybe physically abusive. Many of these individuals do not have control over their anger, over their temper.

Some of these individuals have some Narcissism which is a Personality Disorder that we talked about on a previous show, where they feel a sense of self-worth, self-appraisal that’s much higher than how they perceive other people. They have this extreme sense of entitlement where they are entitled to special privileges. Ironically, many of these people struggle with depression, but their depression is agitated depression. That’s the form in which it typically manifests itself. They do have a history, there’s a higher incidence of conduct disorders from their childhood. So typically this personality type, someone who did get into trouble when they were a kid, when they were younger. They tend to violate boundaries and rights of others, and cross the line and don’t have again, a whole lot of remorse for the impact that they have on other people and they also don’t even consider the consequences. So these people have an inability to tolerate boredom, they have total disregard for the safety and the well-being of others. And they have a real difficult time in dealing with authority figures. So that captures some of the personality traits that are associated with Antisocial Personality. Now as I have mentioned, there is a difference between Antisocial Personality, a Psychopath and a Sociopath even though a lot of people have kind of lump them together. And for Antisocial, they may be, a lot of these individuals have been arrested, have been violating the law, in fact they have found that between 65 and 75% of criminals that have been convicted have an Antisocial Personality Type or Disorder, I should say. Now, the difference between a Sociopath and a Psychopath is for someone who is a Sociopath, they either don’t have a conscience or they are completely able to neutralize or negate their conscience. But they only care about fulfilling their own needs, so Sociopath is more fixated on fulfilling their own needs. They are more selfish, they are more egocentric, and they tend to be, some of the characteristics are that they have an inability to love and to be connected to other people. They tend to be callous and they tend to be risk-takers and impulsive. Now a Psychopath, one of the differences is these individuals have more severe antisocial traits or tendencies. Psychopaths are usually stone-cold. They are remorseless when it comes to harming other people, hurting other people. They have the slightest sense of guilt or regret. And they are natural-born predators. So this would be a different class, a different group of people. Most Psychopaths are antisocial but not all Antisocial Personalities are Psychopaths.

So when people think of Ted Bundy, they may think of someone who is a Psychopath. And it’s an extreme case, an extreme type of Antisocial Personality. Someone who not only breaks the law but has complete disregard for rules, and morals, and values. And it’s certainly an extreme case of someone who is Antisocial Personality Type. These individuals that are Psychopaths are pathological liars. And again, they have very little if any control of their behaviors, of their emotions, of their responsibility, they tend to not comply with rules of any sort, of any nature. And I  thought, maybe it would be helpful to read you a little bit of this case. And this is from Ted Millon’s book, and it’s a case of someone who has Antisocial, not Psychopathic, not Sociopathic but Antisocial Personality Disorder.

‘Terrence was picked up as a vagrant in a town 70 miles from his home. He had been drinking caused considerable commotion outside the bar and seemed unclear as to his whereabouts. In police headquarters he seemed apathetic and he was minimally communicative. He remained that way the following week during which time he was ordered to go into a state hospital for psychiatric observation. He was the third of seven children; mother – hard-working woman, died when he was 11 and his father – drifter and periodic alcoholic dies when Terrence was 16. Terrence was an outsider in his family, always by himself, teased by his siblings, shunned by his peers. He left school at 16, wandered for a year, took odd jobs and then joined the Navy for four years. He lived by himself in a run-down city, worked irregular hours, and he ended up marrying, while in the Navy and lived in this relationship miserably for a few months. Upon his discharge from the Navy, his wife disappeared and he never legally divorced from his first marriage. For several years, Terrence got himself into a lot of trouble. He became the get-away driver for a small gang of bank thieves and after drifting in this role for several years, he began to deal in drugs, and he was caught in a raid and was convicted and sent to prison for 5-10 years. When not in trouble, Terrence does not bother people, he simply prefers to be alone. Every couple of months he goes on a binge, a wild spree in which he spends all sorts of money, gets into a drunken brawl and usually lands in jail. Between these episodes he does not drink and is quiet and isolated. With regards to his psychological testing, it showed that he was better than average intelligence, had great mistrust of others and feel humiliated by his low-status in life. The shame he brought to his more successful brothers was killing him. And he admitted being suspicious of everyone else’s motives having been made a fool of so much of the time. With regard to his wild sprees, he claimed that he had to do something every so often so as to not go crazy doing things that don’t mean anything.’

So this is the life of Terrence, someone who struggles with Antisocial Personality Disorder. And you can see as I was reading through that, you can see the characteristics of being impulsive, being aggressive, failure to conform with the rules, societal norms, not having a whole lot of remorse, and being inconsistent and being irresponsible. And also being a loner, because that is another aspect of this particular disorder. These individuals tend to be loners. And they tend to not trust others, and not want to get close to others. They tend to want to do things on their own. They don’t do well with being bored and that was obvious with Terrence, with his comment about every once in a while he will go on this particular spree.

Now the prevalence of his particular disorder is 5.8% of males and 1.2% of females show evidence of a life-long chance of obtaining this disorder. But in reality is that the diagnosable cases 3% in all males and 1% in females. And obviously, like I said earlier, there’s a higher prevalence of this particular disorder in the prison population. Many of these individuals also have a higher incidence of alcohol or drug abuse.

Now let’s talk about the causes of this disorder. Let’s go through that. Now like all the other personality disorders, it’s a combination of both psychological and physiological. It’s not all biological or genetic but part of it is environmental. And they have done many studies because they have really had an interest in trying to discern what makes someone go on this path of whether it’s being a criminal, whether it’s acting out. What causes them to choose that path? And this particular disorder, Antisocial, is one that has been studied in great detail at great length. Because trying to discern that and trying to understand that is something of great importance for society. So they looked at a number of studies and one thing that they found was that there’s an increased incidence of these characteristics in families where the father is alcoholic. And there is an increase in these types of problems with, when someone else in the family has this Antisocial Personality Type. So if a parent has been diagnosed with Antisocial or has alcoholism, there’s an increased chance that one of the children could develop this particular disorder.

They also found that maternal deprivation, the first five years of a child’s life, if a mother was not either affectionate, or attentive or did not provide discipline, or guidance or direction – that was a factor. So maternal deprivation for the first five years of life is also another factor. And they even looked at adoption studies and they found that there are both the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the development of this particular disorder. And remember that the personality that we have, is the combination of our thoughts, our emotions and our behaviors that make us unique. Let me get this call. There’s a call coming in.

Dr.: You’re on the air.

Caller: Yes, How are you today?

Dr. Good. Thank you.

Caller: Good. I have a question. My wife and I have been married about seven years, this is our second marriage. We both know the Lord, we come from different faith, Catholic and Protestant. And both our spouses have died of cancer. We have known each other most of our lives. And we are both on our 70’s. My wife exhibits a stance, I think it is from her first marriage, a sense of she doesn’t like to make any decisions about anything especially money. She comes from a money back ground, she was a tax collector in where used to live. And she’s a treasurer for our campground so, but when it comes to home, she doesn’t like to face financial situations. And I do know personally from her first marriage, her husband was kind of a tax-master kind of guy. He was not very really loving and she withhold everything that they were doing and didn’t have much to say in it. But now in our marriage, it is kind of giving a little reflection to all the above and it is kind of hard to deal with because a couple of nights, she woke up and she said “I just feel so worthless, I’m not worth anything. I can’t do anything.” And I have to pray with her right there and then, and console her and tell her, “Yes, you are. You are special.” It happens too often.

Dr.: Right.

Caller: I just wonder what you can help me with there.

Dr.: Sure. It may be that part of her self-esteem, part of her self-worth is tied into doing whether it be handling the finances or whatever but having some sense of purpose, or sense of meaning, may be helpful for her. And whether it is in relation to the household, whether it is a volunteer activity, or whatever but having some sense of purpose or meaning that gives her some joy would be helpful. It appears to me based on what you’ve said that she has significant fear of making a mistake, screwing up, doing the wrong thing, making a bad decision, and that paralyzes her. It incapacitates her.

Caller: Yup.

Dr.: Is that accurate.

Caller: Boy! It hit right on the head. Especially I’m legally blind now, and I can’t drive. And she does all the driving and my goodness! She worries about how she’s driving in front of me and she makes so many mistakes recently. I’m just scared to death to drive. We will be taking a thousand mile-trip pretty soon so man! I just don’t know what to say.

Dr.: The acronym I use for FEAR, is False Evidence Appearing Real. False Evidence Appearing Real. A lot of our fears are self-generated. We are our own worst enemy. And it is the thoughts that we generate in our head and sometimes, they are from the past. And it is still taking up space in our head and we are still living in the past because those thoughts are still there. They are still present in our mind.

Caller: So you know, our relationship like I said, I’ve known her since 1953. And we just got married 7 years ago after all the above and we just have a good relationship with each other in the things we do. The enjoyment, the churches, we participate in two totally different churches, and we love it, we just love it together. I mean, I’m not just speaking for myself, I’m speaking for her because she shows such tear-times together with me. So wow! It’s just a great marriage. I’ve never have a marriage as good in my life.

Dr.: That’s wonderful.

Caller: But all these things that are there, you know are fearful for both of us. Because you know I really don’t know what to do about it.

Dr.: Yeah, one last thing is it may be helpful for her to sit down and actually write. Whether it’s to her ex-husband, or someone from her past but to try to capture where those fears originated and to confront the fears in the letter. And then to be able to say at the end of the letter, at the close of the letter, it’s time for me to let you go. It’s time for me to relinquish the control that you have huddled from my life.

Caller: Thank you.

Dr.: You’re welcome. I hope that’s hopeful for you. You take care.

Caller: Ok, bye.

Appreciate so much when people call in and share their issues, their concerns and it is rewarding to be able to give people some guidance, some direction, because all of us are broken. We are all broken. We all have pain, we all have sadness, and hurt and fear. Part of the problem that we have is so many of us don’t want to address it, so many of us don’t want to confront it. I can’t tell you how many times I say, I wish that there were more people that were receptive to counseling or therapy. I wish there were more people that would be able to acknowledge their problems so that they could then confront them and overcome them. I worry more about the people that are not in my office than the people that are. So it makes me so happy when someone calls in and shares a concern and obviously experiences an emotion and then has hope for some closure, and some reconciliation. Thank you! Thank you for the phone call and for sharing.

And we are talking personality disorders. Today we are talking specifically about Antisocial Personality Type. Let me say a few more things before I get back to what I was talking about last time. The one thing that I want to emphasize is that wow, 50%-80% of incarcerated individuals have been found to have Antisocial Personality Disorder. Only 15% have been shown to have the more severe Antisocial Personality Type of Psychopathic tendency or Psychopathology. So Psychopaths tend to be more highly-suspicious and more paranoid in nature. And certainly more severe, that’s a more severe version of Antisocial Personality Type. So I wanted to just clarify that.

We were talking about the differences earlier and I just wanted to be sure that everyone’s clear on that. And again, recognizing that there are people out there that have Antisocial Personality Disorder that are not in jail or not known criminals. And remember when I was describing some of the characteristics and some of the traits, you might say, “Well, yeah, there are some politicians out there that might fit this profile. There are some CEO’s of some major companies that might fit this profile.” You know, the being charming and the being manipulative and the lying and the deceit and not having remorse. So characteristics of this personality type are more common than you might recognize it or you might believe. And it doesn’t just have to be someone who is locked up in jail but it can be someone who is functioning day-to-day. And maybe not always doing the right thing, and maybe not always following the letter of the law. But those people are out there, those people do exist. And those individuals do have trouble in aspects of living like their marriage, maybe their work situation. So again, how much of it is nature? How much of it is nurture? How much of it is genetics? And how much of it is environment? Because it is a combination of the two as with all of the personality disorders.

So some of the environmental factors with this particular disorder; parental neglect, indifference, hostility, a lack of parental presence, a under-developed or a mal-developed conscience, where the individual rejects societal norms and authority and sometimes people who are socially anti-privileged or emotionally-deprived, they might be at higher risk for this particular disorder. Obviously, if you had, if you’ve been diagnosed with childhood conduct disorder you would be at higher risk to develop Antisocial Personality Disorder. If you have been subjected to verbal abuse, physical abuse or sexual abuse during childhood, then you would be at higher risk for developing this particular personality disorder and probably some of the others. Having an unstable or chaotic family life during childhood or loss of parents through death or divorce can be a factor. As I said, it’s more prevalent in men, somewhere from 3-5% and 1% of women would be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

So let me move into the area of treatment. So how do you treat these individuals? What is the best treatment strategy for individuals with Antisocial Personality Type. Well, the treatment is difficult for this particular group. And one of the reasons it’s difficult is because many times, these individuals are given an ultimatum because they have violated either the law or a marriage or a person. So it might be that the ultimatum is you need to go for treatment, or you are going to lose your job, you are going to lose your marriage or maybe part of your probation. So many of these individuals come in to therapy not by choice but because they are required to. And that itself, makes it difficult to do therapy. Many of them lack motivation as a result, and many of them lack insight into themselves. They tend to not have a whole lot of sensitivity, awareness as to other people’s needs and feelings, and really they are often self-absorbed. So it’s going to be important in working with these individuals to not only develop rapport and trust but it is also going to be important to avoid a power struggle. Because many of these individuals are looking to achieve power and achieve a sense of control because maybe they felt completely powerless or helpless when they were growing up in this dysfunctional unhealthy environment. Or maybe because they didn’t have the presence or the involvement or the emotional nurturance that they seek. They don’t seek that in other relationships but they seek that sense of power by either manipulating or controlling, or taking what they want at a life. And have total disregard for the impact or the consequence of their actions and their behaviors. They just go and grab it, and take it. They also as a result of their experiences in growing up, they don’t trust people. They don’t trust that people are going to be there for them, or that people are going to be supportive of them. So a lot times, these individuals rely only on themselves and for some of these individuals, there are treatment programs out there. There is one program that sometimes they use with individuals that have conduct disorders and/or Antisocial Personality Disorder and it is a Wilderness Program. When you are out in the wilderness and you are going through exercises and activities where you are required to rely on others, you work as a team. These individuals are not used to working as a team, they are used to working as an individual. So it requires trust, it requires cooperation. Many of these individuals are not good at that. And so this interpersonal therapy through a Wilderness Program through these activities can help build some trust and some cooperation and reliance on others that they obviously haven’t developed over their lives.

Now Cognitive Therapy is also another therapy that is used, trying to help people modify their distorted thinking. Because they have these distorted thoughts based on what they grew up with, based on their experiences growing up. So if they could never count on their mom or their dad to be there for them, or to support them, then that’s the distorted thought is that no one will be there for me ever. That I can’t count on anyone and I only need to focus in on myself because no one is going to love me, no one is going to care about me, and that is the mind-set that many of these individuals developed with. So Psychotherapy, whether it’s Behavioral or Cognitive Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, those are all part of treating Antisocial Personality Types.

The other part is teaching them some stress and anger management skills because a lot of these individuals do not know healthy ways of dealing with anger. And like I’ve said many times, I have no problem with people being angry, no problem whatsoever. It’s how they express it. It is what they do with it and part of my job is giving them skills, giving them tools to manage it, express it in a healthy and constructive way. So that they are not alienating others and they are not pushing people away or lashing out and isolating themselves. So giving them some stress and anger management skills will be very helpful. In some cases, these individuals would benefit from medication depending on whether they have depression, maybe they have alcohol or drug problem. But medication can sometimes be beneficial and in some cases, they need to be in an in-patient program. Whether it is in the nature that I described earlier like the Wilderness Type Program or whether it is an In-Patient Psychiatric facility. But sometimes people require that intensive therapy where they are engrossed in it for maybe a month. And receiving treatment every day. So those are some of the ways that you can help or that people professionals can help these individuals.

One of the main purpose with the Psychotherapy is not only to help them learn about themselves and educate them so that they understand why they do the things that they do, but it’s to learn about their mood, their thoughts, their behaviors, their feelings and give them some insight as to what triggers their reactions. Helping them think before they act and giving them ways to manage that physiological response almost that knee-jerk response. The fight or flight and give them ways of substituting that with healthier reactions.

Another part of the therapy is giving them insight and awareness into their drive, their motivation and that maybe back to what I said earlier, maybe their motivation is what they really want is to be loved. And they have never received love and they are going about it obviously in a totally inappropriate unhealthy way. In some cases, it’s I don’t think loveable so the way to deal with that is just take what I need in order to feel good about myself at the expense of others. Or another way would be I’m going to reject you first before you have a chance to reject me. And the best defense is a good offense. And a lot of people with this Antisocial Personality have that mind-set. So they reject others before being rejected. Many of these individuals also do have conflict that has remained unresolved in their lives. So part of Psychotherapy is helping them figure out what those conflicts are and then giving them some tools and some strategies. Part of learning to change is taking responsibility so some of these individuals maybe did not learn healthy ways to take responsibility for their actions or for their emotions. They have the emotion whether it’s anger or sadness. They have it but they don’t know what to do with it. So helping them to help themselves and that’s part of giving them power so that they are not consumed by anger, or irritability, or frustration or bitterness. A lot of these individuals are consumed with these negative emotions and really do not have a good way of reacting or of dealing with it. And a lot of them don’t have the insight. I can’t tell you how many people that have come into my office and are totally clueless as to how they come across, as to how they affect the people around them. They are totally out to lunch when it comes to that. And part of my job is to put the mirror up and allow them to take a good hard look at themselves and recognize the way in which they contribute to their own problems. And the way in which they can contribute to their own success in their lives.

Part of therapy is giving people ammunition, giving them strategies and giving them a sense of power over their lives so that when they finish with therapy, they can apply many of those tools and strategies on their own where they don’t need the psychologist or psychiatrist, or counselor to be directing their lives and telling them what to do. Therapy is a really interesting process, it’s a time where the focus is purely on you. It’s purely on one person that is the unique part of our therapy is, it’s all about you. And in many of our relationships in life it should be, hopefully, two-sided where you share in your problems, in your joys, in your excitement but in therapy it’s purely one-sided. And that’s a unique experience where you have the opportunity to focus on yourself and a lot people don’t reflect on themselves. Don’t take the time to think about how they are, how they affect others and that’s part of what therapy does. And me as a psychologist, as an outside-observer, as an objective person, it is my job to give people feedback about themselves that they might not hear otherwise. And sometimes, they don’t want to hear it. Sometimes they are resistant to hearing it. But it is so helpful when an individual can say “You know what? I finally get it. I finally understand what you are talking about. And I get it. And not only do I get it but I don’t want to pass it down to my children. I want to change, I want to be a different person. Help me in doing that.” And that is the beauty of therapy is when a person is open and receptive to take in a good hard look at themselves and motivated to change. Makes my job so much easier to be able to work with a person like that. And people can change in dramatic ways, you would be amazed. I told a patient just the other day, I was saying, “I wish, I had a video tape of you, the first day you walked into my office, and then play the video tape, actually film where you are today, and compare it to where you were when you first walked in.” And it’s amazing, the differences that you can see in the person’s mood, their affect, their body language, their facial expression, the words in which they are using. Because many of the people that I see, the joy is gone from their lives and it is so wonderful to see that brightness, that flicker in their eye when it comes back, it is rewarding to see those kind of changes.

I am going to do one more personality disorder, we’re going to finish up next week with Dependent Personality Disorder and we’ll talk about that particular type and then we’ll talk about how it impacts the person’s life and then some treatment strategies as I’ve done with the other personality disorders. And then that will be it for this series on personality types.

Show Notes

• The antisocial behavior of an individual usually starts during childhood but will never be labeled one until a person reached 18. During childhood years, while a child is still under the guidance of his/her parents and depending on the situation, he/she may experience maltreatment, neglect, abandonment or abuse either physical, emotional or verbal. A child may absorb all of these negative incidences but may not be able to express it that time, because he/she doesn’t have the power and the ability to do so. For this reason, as the child gets older, he/she will find a way or will look for something or someone to project these past negative feelings – the feelings he has repressed for the longest period of time. Anger, self-pity, disappointment and hatred may fill the hearts of little children who never experienced the love and affection that they desire from their parents or guardians when they were still young.
• Environmental factors may also contribute to the intensification of this personality disorder. The treatment of other people, just like in the case of Terrence (from Ted Millon’s book) greatly affects an individual. A person who thinks too little about himself, was considered a shame in the family and was shunned by his peers, might consider himself worthless and unwanted. And since nobody wants to be friends with him nor to be with him, even his own family, he might as well just become indifferent about them or worse, do something that might violate their rights or to any other person he comes in contact with.
• As time goes by and as these people with Antisocial Personality Disorder continuously execute acts that violate the right of people and breaks the norms and laws of the society, they become used to it. They happen to be indifferent, apathetic, unconcerned and eventually will feel the satisfaction of doing such deeds, not just to affect others but in order to feed their own wants and desires regardless of the sake, feelings or safety of other people.
• Ordinary citizens who come across these people with Antisocial Personality Disorder should never contribute to the latter’s thinking about their negative image and the bad figure they convey to other people by talking behind their backs or by bad-mouthing them. It is true that we should take extra caution and must be alert in dealing with them since they have tendencies of being aggressive and impulsive. But then again, we should help and encourage them instead of showing them that they are hopeless. People can change, by modifying their personalities, they can become a better person, with a better way of thinking and the better and bright future will soon follow.