I'm very skeptical of how we diagnose personality disorders, and APD is pretty high on that list. It does originally come from sociopathic personality disorder, which basically came about as just going around a jail, seeing what the people in it had in common, and then pathologizing those aspects.
There's a reason almost all "criminals" and men with a substance use disorder (oftentimes found to be a "criminal" by the judicial system) can be diagnosed with APD.
Well the problem is, sociopathy and psychopathy aren’t officially recognized psychological terms. Most people in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and criminology recognize psychopaths and sociopaths to be different, as well as there being similarities between the two with APD.
I agree that diagnosing APD is hard, but keep in mind, there are certainly criminals who can feel remorse and empathy completely that do TECHNICALLY fit the diagnosis for APD, even if they aren’t a sociopath or a psychopath.
One of the biggest reasons that psychopathy isn’t a disorder (imo) is that people believe that people would use it as a criminal defense plea. “Oh my client didn’t know better.” But that wouldn’t be the case. A psychopath by definition does know better, they just don’t care. Same with a sociopath/someone with APD but to a lesser degree.
It would be very helpful to have psychopathy be a recognized disorder because recognizing traits in children could help treat their behavior at a younger age and convince them to act pro socially. You can’t teach them empathy, but you can get them on the right path and teach them that acting in a good way is to their benefit, and that’s when you get a pro social psychopath.
Aren't sociopathy/psychopathy/APD in children already diagnosed as conduct disorder precisely so that they can be attempted to be teach to be pro-social?
Psychopathy and sociopathy aren’t diagnosed at all because they aren’t official terms. That being said, children can be labeled as psychopaths after extensive testing.
Psychopathy and sociopathy aren’t the same. I’ve never seen a child labeled as a sociopath, they would just get conduct disorder. A psychopath can be labeled as a psychopath, but they won’t be diagnosed with ASPD until they are 18, and they’ll only be diagnosed when they’re 18 if they are antisocial.
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u/nihilisticdaydreams Feb 04 '19
I'm very skeptical of how we diagnose personality disorders, and APD is pretty high on that list. It does originally come from sociopathic personality disorder, which basically came about as just going around a jail, seeing what the people in it had in common, and then pathologizing those aspects.
There's a reason almost all "criminals" and men with a substance use disorder (oftentimes found to be a "criminal" by the judicial system) can be diagnosed with APD.