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Results for “SOCIOPATHIC PERSONALITY”

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PubMed1978

Factored scales for the Personal Health Survey with schizophrenics, alcoholics, felons, unmarried mothers, and college students.

Employed the Personal Health Survey (PHS) to study patterns of symptomology related to physical and mental health in a population of 730 Ss, which consisted of five subgroups: felons, hospitalized alcoholics, unmarried mothers, college students and institutionalized schizophrenics. The factorial data were analyzed in terms of (a) size of item factor loadings; (b) base rates of responding True to each item; and (c) clinical judgments as to the specificity and meaning of the items and factor scale patterns. Five main factors were extracted: Factor I--General health status; Factor II--Sociopathic character disorders; Factor III--Mixed psychiatric symptoms; Factor IV--Anxiety state with psychosomatic symptoms and general nervousness; and Factor V--Schizophrenicity.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1982

Evaluation of a detoxification regimen for fat stored xenobiotics.

A detoxification regimen has been found to be safe for use by individuals exposed to recreational (abused) and medical drugs, patent medicines, occupational and environmental chemicals. Patients with high blood pressure had a mean reduction of 30.8 mm systolic, 23.3 mm diastolic. Cholesterol level mean reduction was 19.5 mg/100ml, while triglycerides did not change. Medical complications associated with the program were rare, occurring in less than three percent of the subjects. The program resulted in improvements in psychological test scores. The mean increase in Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IQ was 6.7 points. High Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles decreased on the third scale (10.7), the fourth scale (8.0), the fifth scale (4.5) and the sixth scale (8.0). The decrease in the fourth scale suggests hope for sociopaths, a group with fourth scale scores not improved by National Institute for Mental Health or Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act inpatient programs.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed1988

Who are those guys? Toward a behavioral typology of batterers.

This paper reviews a cluster analysis of batterer abuse and antisocial variables drawn from intake interviews with battered women in Texas shelters. A substantial portion of severely abusive and extremely antisocial batterers are identified in the cluster solution. A typology, based on cross-tabulations of the clusters and descriptive variables, includes three types of batterers: sociopathic, antisocial, and typical batterers. These findings suggest that research on batterer characteristics needs to direct attention to the differentiation of batterers, and that intervention with especially the sociopathic and antisocial batterers needs to go beyond court-mandated counseling and anger control treatment.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Phobic core in the addictions and the paranoid process.

A discussion of "Addiction and the Paranoid Process," by W. W. Meissner, M.D. Three major strata are distinguished in the psychodynamic make-up of addicts: (1) a sociopathic-paranoid stratum, (2) a depressive layer, and (3) a phobic core. The last consists of a claustrophobic constellation, with claustrophobia seen as primary. Parallel to phobic neurosis, and in contradistinction to the personalized paranoid construction, compulsive drug use is seen as an impersonal condensation system. The drug effect is a type of counterphobic fantasy. While the paranoid character blames others and the depressive character blames himself, the phobic character compulsively avoids the claustrum on the outside and the addictive character both searches for it and destroys it.

Adult↗

PubMed1975

Psychophysiology of sociopathy: electrocortical measures.

The CNV, visual AEP and resting EEG were analyzed in sociopaths and controls matched for age and sex. Twenty-seven male sociopaths were selected by psychiatric interview and special rating scale, restricted to Shipley-Hartford IQs of 115-145 and separated into young (x = 20.5 yr) and older (x = 35.3 yr) age groups. Subjects participated in forewarned reaction-time tasks in which the imperative stimulus was either an innocuous or noxious tone that the subject escaped by pressing a response key. Sociopaths and controls did not differ in reaction time, vertex and occipital AEP amplitude or latency, and power spectral density of the EEG. Contrary to previous findings, there also were no significant differences between sociopaths and controls in overall CNV amplitude or topography. However, while most controls showed increased CNV amplitude in the noxious tone condition as compared to the innocuous tone condition, older sociopaths showed no change, or decreased amplitudes.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1975

Some behavioral techniques in community psychiatry.

Behaviorist principles operate observably in all aspects of animal life, hence in all therapies and in the community at large. Application of these principles strengthens treatment, notably with unsophisticated clients and sociopaths commonly encountered at Community Clinics. It also makes the program more sellable to taxpayers. Various techniques are described.

Alcoholics Anonymous↗

PubMed1990

[Psychotherapy of sociopathic and objectively dangerous patients. Psychotherapy of sociopathic patients: prerequisites of the therapist and the environment. Parameters of therapeutic technics].

The author proposes that the environment involved in the treatment of sociopathic patients should not foster splitting mechanisms. Preconditions for the therapy and requirements for the capability of the psychotherapist are discussed, especially his attitudes, the cohesion of his own self and his emotional reactions towards his patients. Two case histories are presented to demonstrate the type and timing of the interventions. The therapeutic modality for the treatment of sociopathic disorders takes into consideration the superego distorsions and the defense mechanisms, specially acting out, regression and splitting.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The adult antisocial syndrome with and without antecedent conduct disorder: comparisons from an adoption study.

DSM antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) requires a retrospective diagnosis of conduct disorder-historical behavior not present in everyone with adult ASPD criteria. Using adoption study data, we examined the impact of this requirement on biological and environmental risk associations. We also compared clinical correlates of adult antisocial behavior with and without prior conduct disorder. We defined three subgroups: DSM-III ASPD (n = 30), adult antisocials without conduct disorder (n = 25), and controls (n = 142). By design, the sample had a high incidence of biological parent ASPD, which was partially confounded with fetal alcohol exposure. We compared the associations of both of these putative risk factors with subgroup membership after controlling for gender and adverse adoptive environment. We also examined differences in two sociopathy scales and the incidence of co-occurring affective, alcohol, and other substance use disorders. Finally, we explored differences in individual antisocial symptoms. Having an antisocial biological parent was a specific risk factor for ASPD. In contrast, fetal alcohol exposure, male gender, and adverse environment were associated with the adult antisocial syndrome, regardless of conduct disorder history. The two antisocial groups were similar with respect to sociopathy scales, co-occurring diagnoses, and the incidence of most individual symptoms. However, several adult and conduct disorder symptoms had significant specific associations with biological or environmental background or their interaction. Phenotypic expression of the biological-possibly genetic-risk for ASPD appears to be manifest before adulthood. The influence of other risk factors may not depend on antecedent conduct disorder. Despite this, we could not detect clinically important differences between the two sociopathic groups. The conduct disorder requirement therefore may be more relevant to etiological than clinical understanding of adult antisocial behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1975

Superego factors in alcoholics.

This paper discusses superego fixations and regressions that predispose to and are caused by alcoholism. Two continua of superego functioning are explored, (1) the extent of internalization vs. externalization and (2) regulation of behavior vs. self-castigation. The superego constellations in guilty, binge, sociopathic, and deteriorated alcoholics are delineated to explain the interaction of a treatment program with these patients.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Drug addiction among young people: a study of typology and its relevance to treatment programmes.

On the basis of clinical observation, the authors have classified drug addiction into four types: traumatic, actual, transitional and sociopathic. Such classification helps in epidemiological research to understand better the distribution of people addicted to a given drug. Each type of addiction differs in respect of onset, evolution, prognosis and certain other characteristics relevant to the treatment of drug-addicted persons. Thus, the classification helps in making an appropriate selection of a treatment method and in the evaluation of a treatment programme. It has been observed that (a) traumatic and actual types of addiction have a much more favourable prognosis; (b) individual psychotherapy and support in a medical setting is effective for the traumatic type of addiction; (c) treatment in a family setting appears to be suitable for actual and transitional types of addiction; and (d) the therapeutic community may prove to be effective in the treatment of persons affected by socio-pathic type of addiction.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1976

Diagnostic evaluation of the juvenile offender: toward the clarification of often overlooked psychopathology.

On the basis of previously reported findings that a high percentage of court-referred children suffered from serious psychopathology other than sociopathy, attention is called to some essential, though often overlooked, elements of diagnostic evaluation of delinquents. Emphasis is on a meticulous history, including careful attention to the significances of family histories of serious psychiatric and/or neurological disorders. The importance of a detailed perinatal and medical history, with emphasis on determining a possible history of significant insult to the central nervous system, is stressed. A systematic mental status evaluation is strongly recommended. Techniques for assessing the existence of significant hallucinatory and delusional experiences in children are suggested. The uses of psychological and neurological evaluations to augment the psychiatric are discussed. The poor social situation from which many delinquents come as well as the obvious intrafamilial psychodynamic factors influencing delinquent behavior are recognized as frequent impediments to the search for less obvious psychotic and/or organic vulnerabilities in the juvenile offender. Case histories of several children who had previously been dismissed as merely sociopathic, illustrate the thesis of the paper.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1976

Ecological variation of three types of suicide.

The hypothesis has been tested that three types of suicide ('old and handicapped', 'sociopathic' and 'depressed') will vary in prevalence across ecologically defined urban areas. The hypothesis is supported with respect to 'old and handicapped' suicide, which predominated in middle-class areas with established residents of middle-class status; and with respect to 'sociopathic' suicide, which predominates in central areas with high rates of social pathology of all kinds, and poor housing conditions.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

The sadness of the psychopath.

In this introduction to the study and treatment of antisocial disorders, pain and loss to, as well as from, the sociopath are explored in an effort to establish and update an overview of sociopathy for the therapist or social scientist who is asked to work with such patients.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

PubMed1990

Forensic sexology: paraphilic serial rape (biastophilia) and lust murder (erotophonophilia).

Forensic sexology is not synonymous with either forensic psychiatry or forensic psychology. It is a specialty in its own right, and is needed in the courtroom. Paraphilic sex offenders on trial are misrepresented as being, by their own choice, psychopathic or sociopathic deviates. They are unable to explain their paraphilic criminality to either themselves or society. In a case of serial rape and serial lust murder here presented, the contributory causes are examined and differentiated as hereditary predisposition, hormonal functioning; pathological relationships, sexual abuse; and syndrome overlap with bipolar disorder, schizoid disorder, antisocial personality disorder, epilepsy, and multiple personality. The precipitating causes were differentiated as childhood head injuries, and adult head injury at age 20. Left impact trauma and sexological trauma were sequelae of the adult injury. The full range of diagnostic resources was not available for a prisoner on death row. Capital punishment has not prevented the reemergence in each new generation of serial rape and serial lust murder as an epidemiological, public health problem. Punishment is an ineffectual substitute for epidemiological research into cause, effect, and prevention.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗

PubMed2000

The causes and costs of crime and a controversial cure.

In spite of recent modest decreases, the epidemic of crime that began in the United States in the early 1960s has left us with a rate of violent crime that is still some 300% higher than it was 40 years ago. The usual suspects--poverty, the easy availability of street drugs and handguns, violent television programs--cannot account for this ominous trend. The fact that African Americans are responsible for nearly half of this violence, although they constitute only about one-eighth of the U.S. population, is the principal reason why the great improvement in race relations made over the past half-century has reached an asymptote. White fears, and Black resentment of these fears, are a grave threat to further progress. It is argued here that the main reason for this epidemic of crime and violence is the rapid recent increase in the proportion of the young people aged 15 to 24 who have grown up unsocialized. It is argued further that most of these feral youngsters are sociopaths, defined as genetically normal children whose failure of socialization was due to their being domiciled with an immature, overburdened, unsocialized, or otherwise incompetent parent or parents.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Some implications of the analyst feeling disturbed while working with disturbed patients.

The analyst's experience of patients' disturbances is explored as an aspect of analytic technique. A number of premises are examined. First, it is expected that the analyst is committed to tolerating and understanding disturbances evoked in him by his patients' personalities and their disturbances. Second, that he regards the disturbances evoked in him as a form of manifest content to be understood in the usual method of association. Third, countertransference attitudes may propel the analyst toward rapid formulaic conceptions of his patients' disturbances or to considerations of diagnostic designations carrying serious, if not pejorative implications, such as borderline, narcissistic, perverse, or sociopathic. Such attitudes may also underlie the urge to consider psychotropic medications in response to the patients' disturbances. A selected review of the literature as well as illustrative work with disturbing patients are presented in support of the paper's premises.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The hitchhiker's guide to altruism: gene-culture coevolution, and the internalization of norms.

An internal norm is a pattern of behavior enforced in part by internal sanctions, such as shame, guilt and loss of self-esteem, as opposed to purely external sanctions, such as material rewards and punishment. The ability to internalize norms is widespread among humans, although in some so-called "sociopaths", this capacity is diminished or lacking. Suppose there is one genetic locus that controls the capacity to internalize norms. This model shows that if an internal norm is fitness enhancing, then for plausible patterns of socialization, the allele for internalization of norms is evolutionarily stable. This framework can be used to model Herbert Simon's (1990) explanation of altruism, showing that altruistic norms can "hitchhike" on the general tendency of internal norms to be personally fitness-enhancing. A multi-level selection, gene-culture coevolution argument then explains why individually fitness-reducing internal norms are likely to be prosocial as opposed to socially harmful.

Altruism↗

PubMed1983

Types and phases of alcohol dependence illness.

The published data based on retrospective recall support the position that there is a characteristic developmental sequence of clinical signs and symptoms in alcohol dependence illness. These symptoms cluster in three sequential temporal phases: psychological dependence, physiological dependence, and neurological disorganization. Individuals may discontinue alcohol consumption during any phase and are not doomed to complete the sequence. Attempts to develop subtypes of alcohol-dependent individuals are generally based on inadequate samples from nonrepresentative treatment centers, many of whose patients are not alcohol dependent. The proposed essential-reactive, primary-affective, and life-style typologies have very weak support. Studies repeatedly confirm sociopathic, depressed, and anxious subgroups of alcohol dependent patients. However, such classifications have not been able to encompass more than one-half of the treatment populations studied. These concurrent symptom types are more prevalent in publicly operated treatment facilities and are predictive of recovery.

Affect↗