Anti-Social Personality Disorder

 What is “an Anti-Social Personality Disorder? 

Traits: Those with ASPD have little regard for norms, standards, boundaries and issues of right and wrong and therefore have little regard for the wellbeing of other people. They will frequently antagonise, manipulate, exploit and demand, and suffer no guilt or remorse due to a lack of ability to reflect on their destructive behaviour. They often violate the law by behaving impulsively and recklessly, lying and cheating, and can act with great irritability and hostility due to lack of impulse control, and major addictions to drugs or alcohol. They can display charming behaviour when they want something and are consummate actors. But the charm belies a cynical and highly opinionated interior. 

How effective is psychotherapy? Firstly, the person with a personality disorder will need to want to change but they are known to perceive their mentality as superior, stronger, more successful, and as more intelligent, than other people, such as those who are empathic, generous and charitable. Therapy is long term and can be at considerable financial cost. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is probably the method of choice as they need to become aware that their behaviour harms and hurts those closest to them. In addition to CBT, Neuro Linguistic Programming might have some techniques to offer. Group Therapy can reveal relating patterns and can offer insight. 

Article Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk