30.3.15
What Antisocial Personality Disorder Is and Is Not
9:19 PM
Every year, I host a St. Patrick's Day party that all of my friends and family members really enjoy. This past year, I was talking to one of my friends whose husband never comes to the party and I asked her if everything was all right. She said that everything was fine, that he just had antisocial personality disorder and had a difficult time being around a lot of people.
As a psychology major in college, I wanted to explain to her what I sincerely hoped was a misuse of the phrase antisocial personality disorder.
When most people say that another person is antisocial, they mean that the person prefers his own company. He would rather be by himself than around other people and pretty much avoids situations where he has to socialize.
That seems to have become a fairly common term for more introverted and reclusive people, and I don't see anything wrong with that, per se. However, there is a big difference in being antisocial in the common sense of the word and having antisocial personality disorder.
A person with antisocial personality disorder essentially has no regard for human life. He or she does not feel a sense of duty to conform to laws or social mores, and shows absolutely no remorse for the pain or harm he or she causes to others.
One of my professors gave an example of antisocial personality disorder one time as a man going into his workplace and shooting everyone there because he had a grudge against one employee. When asked why he shot at everyone in the room, he might respond by saying that he had to make sure he got his intended target.
If pressed further about all of the lives he has disrupted or destroyed, and the innocent people who had nothing to do with his grudge, he might respond by shrugging and saying they shouldn't have been there. There is simply no regard or respect for other people with antisocial personality disorder.
I have to laugh sometimes, consequently, when someone will tell me that a friend or loved one is antisocial because they don't do crowds. I am always tempted to say that they better hope he or she is not antisocial, or there could be a disastrous outcome.
Antisocial personality disorder is a serious, rare condition that should not be taken lightly. It is not the same as what many people refer to as being antisocial, and I think that it is important that a distinction is made between the two. One is a serious mental health disorder that can potentially be dangerous, while the other is a character trait that most of us simply think of as being shy.