Antisocial conduct: whose concern?

Abstract

The differing perceptions of practitioners in child psychiatry and general psychiatry of antisocial behaviour are outlined, and an account is given of the change of attitudes towards deviancy that has taken place in the U.K. over the past twenty years. Attention is drawn to the fact that constitutional as well as experimental factors contribute to the causation of delinquent conduct, and the characteristics of "schizoid" antisocial young people are described. A plea is made for strengthening the links in training, research and practice between the subspecialties of psychiatry, and for a renewal of psychiatric interest in the sociopathies.