General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How to leave a psychopath [View all]moriah
(8,311 posts)Last edited Tue Dec 10, 2013, 02:52 PM - Edit history (1)
Read my post near the top of the thread about my father. He met every DSM-IV-TR criteria, and probably would meet the DSM-V criteria, for Antisocial Personality Disorder. He'd been in and out of jail, numerous physical fights with other men, no respect for the law, always happy to pay you Tuesday for a sandwich today (and then he'd "forget" or justify why you owed him that sandwich). He had it, IMHO. He wasn't about to kill someone. He wasn't someone I'd date, nor would I recommend my mother did, but I didn't abandon him as his kid.
Also, read "The Psychopath Test". It's a great book, that discusses how many executives have it, and aren't killing people either (just their employees' souls).
Edit to add: I understand you are a nursing student, and I'm just a student (and messed up person myself) of psychology. But I'm *quite* familiar with AbPsych, and there *are* methods to treat ASPD for those who are actually motivated to go into treatment. Just like any other treatment for ANY mental disorder. There are also variations in functioning. I'm sorry the person you dealt with was obviously on the worst end of the spectrum.
But tarring everyone whose doctor has written that in their charts at one point as unfixable, untreatable, useless people who should be abandoned and left bothers me a great deal. Men who enter psychiatric treatment, especially court-ordered psychiatric treatment, are often given this diagnosis if they're considered "difficult" patients, just like women who are difficult patients who are suicidally depressed are labeled often incorrectly as Borderline.