In modern psychiatry, "personality" does not mean the same thing as in sociology, but a way of thinking, perceiving and behaving that characterizes a person in his usual way of life. It follows that a personality disorder is some kind of disturbance in behavior, intellect or emotional sphere.
Personality disorders
Antisocial personality disorder is just one type of many. In general, all personality disorders have a lot of options. These are congenital psychopathy that lead a person to different kind breakdowns, pathological reactions to ordinary situations, etc. Weaker in severity disorders are called character accentuation - these are breakdowns that manifest themselves in certain areas of life and, as a rule, do not lead to too detrimental results, and therefore are not considered as a pathology.
The main symptom of this type of personality disorder is neglect and sometimes violence towards other people. Previously, such a disorder was called differently: both congenital criminality, and moral insanity, and constitutional psychopathic inferiority. Today, this disorder is commonly referred to as immoral or deviant disorder, and in one word - sociopathy.
The antisocial personality type is clearly different in a number of ways from the rest. First of all, in this case behavioral disturbances are social norms do not seem mandatory to a person, and the thoughts and feelings of other people are simply ignored.
Such people tend to manipulate others as much as possible in order to achieve some personal goals - power over someone gives them pleasure. Deception, intrigue and simulation - quite 
their usual means of achieving what they want. However, their actions, as a rule, are performed under the influence of impulse and rarely lead to the realization of a certain goal. An asocial person never thinks about the consequences of what they have done. Because of this, they often have to change jobs, environments, and even where they live.
When counseling antisocial individuals, their excessive irritability, high self-esteem, and impudence are usually noticeable. To relatives, they are generally inclined to use physical violence. They are not interested in either their own safety or the safety of the lives of their loved ones - all this is not a value.
Antisocial personality - A person with a poorly developed (or perverted) sense of responsibility, low moral values and a lack of interest in others. Another name for an antisocial personality is a sociopath.
Characteristics of an antisocial personality
Behavior is almost entirely determined by a person's own needs.Painful reactions, frustrations to the state of one's own displeasure.
The desire for immediate deliverance (and deliverance at any cost) from unpleasant sensations.
Impulsiveness, the tendency to live in the moment.
The extraordinary ease of lying.
Often very skillfully play roles.
Unstable self-esteem.
The need to excite oneself (to excite).
Inability to change one's behavior as a result of punishment.
Surrounding people are often often perceived as attractive, intelligent, charming people.
Easily come into contact, especially easily converge on the basis of entertainment.
Absence sincere sympathy to others.
Lack of feelings of shame or guilt for their actions.
Three groups of factors contributing to the development of an antisocial personality are presented below: biological determinants, features of the relationship between parents and the child, style of thinking.
Biological factors
Research suggests genetic correlates of a social behavior. Identical twins have twice the concordance for criminal behavior than related twins, making it clear that this behavior is partly heritable.Adoption studies show that the crimes of adopted boys are similar to those of their biological fathers.
It is also noted that antisocial individuals have low excitability, which is why they, with the help of impulsive and dangerous actions, seek to receive stimulation that causes appropriate sensations.
Family factors
Research also shows that the quality of parental care received by a child who is prone to hyperactivity and behavioral problems determines to a large extent whether he develops antisocial personality or not.Children who are often left unattended or who are poorly cared for for long periods of time are much more likely to engage in criminal behavior patterns.
Also, children whose parents do not participate in their Everyday life are more likely to become antisocial.
Biological and family factors often coincide, which enhances their effect. Children with behavioral problems often have neuropsychological problems resulting from maternal drug use, poor intrauterine nutrition, toxic effects before and after birth abuse, complications during childbirth and low birth weight. Such children are more likely to be irritable, impulsive, awkward, hyperactive, inattentive. They slowly learn the material at school, which over time leaves a strong imprint on the child's self-esteem.
Thinking style
In children with behavioral disorders, an inadequate picture of the world, the processing of information about social interactions what happens is that they develop aggressive reactions to these interactions. They expect aggression from other children and adults, interpret their actions based on the assumption of malevolence.Not knowing how to behave assertively, the child eventually comes to the conclusion that aggression is the most reliable and effective tool.
The responses of others to the child's aggression usually only lead to the strengthening of the idea of the need for aggression.
Thus, a vicious circle of interactions develops, supporting and inspiring aggressive and antisocial behavior child.
It is rightly considered that a social attitude is one of the main qualities human nature; character social attitude is an essential personality trait. The opposition of an outward-oriented, sociable, open personality, and a personality, so to speak, closed in on itself, focused on itself (autistic), closed, is put forward as a fundamental one.
Jung talks about extroverts and introverts, Kretschmer - about cyclothymic and schizotymic character. Within the cyclothymic type, Kretschmer singles out another opposition: naive self-confidence with a penchant for grandiose enterprises and modest indecision. Within the schizotyme type, idealistic thinking (on one pole of which we observe a passion for transformation, a desire for systematization and organization, while on the other - stubbornness, a spirit of contradiction, gloomy suspicion and misanthropy) is opposed to rude, openly antisocial behavior.
The social behavior of the mentally ill and psychopaths cannot be reduced to a single, simple formula. Even with the same form of disorder different people behave differently. Sometimes a person with a severe schizophrenic process continues to be quite active. social life; on the other hand, a person suffering from psychopathy may stop all contact with other people and vegetate in all alone. But the people we consider mentally abnormal are, for the most part, abnormal in terms of social behavior. This feature has even been put forward as a criterion for defining the disease. People suffering from mental anomalies are mostly asocial; but few of them are anti-social.
antisocial behavior
Numerous varieties of antisocial behavior come down to two typical forms.
1. Obsessed with narrow sense of this word - that is, those whom we currently classify as schizophrenic patients - as a rule, in one form or another exclude themselves from human society. Within themselves they erect a new one, special world where they mostly live. - although to a superficial observer it may seem that they maintain contact with the real world. They have no need to share with others that realm of feelings, experiences and delusional ideas. which belongs only to them. They are self-sufficient and are gradually alienated from other people, including those who suffer from the same form. mental disorder. It is rightly considered that between such patients and us the distance is greater than between us and representatives primitive cultures. The patient himself, apparently, is not aware of his anti-social nature and lives in his own world as if this world were quite real. AT typical case such people close in on themselves. without noticing it and without experiencing any suffering in this regard. They constitute a "socially dead" group. If the disorder is relatively mild, patients from the lower strata of society become vagabonds, and patients from the wealthy strata are destined for a reputation as eccentrics.
2. A completely different type of asociality, sometimes, in the early stages of the process, combined with the one just described, develops as an inability to communicate with others and adapt to situations. Subjectively, this inability is felt as something very painful. Any contact becomes real torture; therefore, a person tries to stay away from others, prefers to remain alone with himself. This causes him great suffering: after all, suppressing social instincts in himself, a person experiences a longing for communication and love. His asociality becomes noticeable to others; he annoys them with his awkwardness. Shyness is interspersed in him with arrogance, all of his external manifestations immoderate, behavior contradictory accepted norms. He feels the reaction of others and therefore becomes more and more isolated in himself. This form of asociality is characterized by a wide variety of psychologically understandable connections; it depends on a variety of "complexes" and, under favorable circumstances, may disappear. On the other hand. it can lead to absolute self-isolation: a person imprisons himself in a room that he never leaves. Such behavior is observed in representatives of the most diverse characterological types - not only in coarse and undifferentiated personalities, but also in cultured people and capable of deep feelings; it can be combined with many other defective manifestations mental life and show up as a passing phase or as one of the aspects of a stable constitution. It may develop spontaneously or be a distinct reaction to adverse circumstances. In short, such behavior can be an expression of the most different forms mental illness.
antisocial behavior
There are many antisocial patients among criminals. Most cases are caused not so much by painful processes as by constitutional anomalies. Antisocial elements are found among patients with schizophrenia - especially in the early stages - as well as among patients with progressive paralysis. Among patients with manic-depressive disorders, they practically do not happen.
The development of research on the psychology of criminals has passed through three phases, from the point of view of the present time, these phases look like a series of parallel, reasonably complementary directions. Initially, individual criminals were studied, they were considered as rare, abnormal, deviant cases. Classically distinct conjugations of mental life events were demonstrated, which usually appear in less obvious, undeveloped forms. Then, psychologically understandable connections were singled out, which are quite rare and are generally interpreted incorrectly, that is, too “intellectually” (this applies, in particular, to the psychology of poisoners and women who have committed crimes on the basis of nostalgia). Finally, the impact of disease processes on individual cases was investigated. In the writings of this first phase, the psychological understanding is often simplistic, naive, and leaves the reader feeling dissatisfied. Crimes are often erroneously attributed to certain drives or passions; they are given overly intellectual interpretations; too much in mental life, in imperceptible conjugations of instincts, symbolic acts and complexes, is attributed conscious thinking On the other hand, many descriptions indicate that the authors were able to identify in the highest degree valuable and irreplaceable material. Understanding was successfully applied to a number of cases. psychological approach. Attempts were made to generalize the systematization of the entire set of descriptions of criminals. As an example, one can cite an underestimated book by Kraus.
The second phase was marked by a transition from an understanding study of individual cases to a statistical one. methods. Analysis of the causes of crimes and the circumstances that led to them became the basis for deriving long series of correlations. Studies of this kind were usually carried out according to official statistics and focused on the relationships of crime in general, as well as certain types crimes, with the most various factors: season, age, bread prices. In particular, it was found that the peak of theft and fraud occurs in the winter, and the peak of crimes associated with increased mental excitability (such as rape, insult in word and action) - in the summer; it was also found that quantitative growth cases of theft occurs partly in parallel with the rising cost of living. Assessing and explaining these and other similar correlations is usually not easy. There is a tendency towards simplistic explanations; however, the criticalists point to a wide variety of factors and warn against interpreting any parallelisms in terms of causation. Regularly repeating connections may well be due to the dependence of both terms of the correlation on a number of some unknown factors.
Interpretation of results statistical studies difficult because, when counting criminal acts, we know nothing about the people who commit these acts. The need to get closer to understanding real, deep connections led to the fact that in the third phase of research, the main focus was again switched to the personality of the criminal, to the person as a whole. But this time, in contrast to the first phase, it was no longer a matter of looking for individual, rare, classically distinct cases. The material collected in special institutions and other places, was investigated in its entirety. This was done in order to understand the phenomenon of the average, ordinary criminal, since from the point of view of the fight against crime, this phenomenon is most important. In such works one has to operate with relatively small numbers; accordingly, it is possible to achieve high accuracy of calculations and study a very wide range of relationships, because the basis for statistics is the study of the individual as a whole (here, in contrast to the mass statistics of the previous phase, we are talking about individual statistics). Grude applied this approach to qualitative and quantitative analysis already known objective signs. He also tried to make data on the typology of characters, hereditary predispositions, psychological understanding, the dependence of antisocial behavior on environmental factors or the constitution (the so-called personality statistics) the subject of statistics.
The role of the psychiatrist is to identify and communicate facts relevant to the fight against crime, the establishment of punishment and the organization of work in places of punishment. Here, goals are determined by society and the views that prevail in it. Applied psychology should answer the question of how achievable these goals are and what solutions are possible in connection with them.
As a scientist, the psychiatrist must give an unbiased account of the facts whenever the situation seems "hopeless." In such cases, a tragic situation develops from which no acceptable way out is visible. Wetzel was able to clearly show this by the example of an anomalous querulant personality (“little man”). This man fought for justice for ten years, unbearably annoying the authorities, who, in turn, were often wrong towards him. Being a psychopath, this man had absolutely no criminal intent; in the end, he committed suicide, having previously sent a message to the newspapers about his death: “All his life, von Hausen dreamed of serving the Motherland. But by will cruel fate his life ended in vain.”
Reference: I am spers(Jaspers) Karl (February 23, 1883, Oldenburg - February 26, 1969, Basel), German existentialist philosopher and psychiatrist. Medical education received at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Heidelberg (1902–08).
Is being different from others good or bad? Some might say that this defines a person as an independent person. And someone will repeat that it is impossible to be different. In fact, both are right: a person is not always different from others in better side, and such a person is awarded the epithet "asocial". It means a person that opposes the norms and rules of society. This will be discussed in the publication.
Definition
The meaning of the word "asocial" has several characteristics. If translated literally from Greek, then we get the following definition: a person who is indifferent to society, who does not take active actions in the life of society, that is, an antisocial individual. Also, the word "asocial" means behavior that is contrary to the norms and rules accepted in society.
In fact, it has two opposite definitions. On the one hand, an asocial is a person who acts contrary to established rules, but on the other hand, it is an individual who is not interested in interacting with society. If he has motivation, then it is mainly aimed at single actions.
How is this term used?
Asocial is a term that appeared in everyday life at the beginning of the twentieth century. Initially, politicians used it in their speeches, meaning by this word all disadvantaged people, that is, the underclass. During the Second World War, in the camps of the Third Reich, asocial elements wore the same identification marks like mentally retarded people.
FROM positive side asociality is considered in religious dogmas. Some monastic traditions encourage asociality, believing that a person who is away from society is closer to God.
Asocial can be called introverts, people who do not occupy active positions in society. But extreme form asociality is considered schizophrenia, which is characterized by an inability to empathize and establish contact with other people.
Another personality
Based on all of the above, a logical question arises: what is she, this asocial personality?
So, antisocial personality. The definition of this term will sound like this: an antisocial personality in psychology means a person with a perverted (underdeveloped or absent) sense of responsibility, who operates with low moral values and does not show interest in his own kind.
Such people are easily recognized by their behavior. They can painfully and rather violently react to a sense of their own dissatisfaction and always strive to quickly get rid of objects or situations that bring discomfort. They are impulsive, tend to "put on masks", skillfully lie. But quite often they are perceived by the surrounding intelligent and charming people. Asocial people can find contact with others in the background common interests However, they do not know how to show empathy and care.
Behavior
Asocial is different. Everything is wrong with him: from the habit of tying shoelaces to the perception of reality, what can we say about behavior? As already mentioned, such behavior differs from the norms and rules accepted in society. Depending on what the researcher considers the norm, the opposite action will be considered antisocial behavior. For example, if we study the process of adaptation, then maladaptive behavior can be considered antisocial.
Thus, the concept of "antisocial behavior" definition will have the following:
- This is one of the varieties deviant behavior which is detrimental to society. Such behavior is not aimed at social relationships, but it has a wide range actions: from infantilism to mental disorders.
Not always antisocial behavior can be considered negative quality, there is evidence that people of the asocial type brought a lot of new things to the development of society. Although this is just an exception to the rule. In addition, one should not confuse antisocial behavior with antisocial, since the latter is associated with criminal, illegal and immoral actions. Antisocial behavior originates from the avoidance of other people and the inability to build relationships with them, which, in fact, ends with mental disorders.
Appropriate measures
Often the prevention of antisocial behavior is carried out in circles or educational institutions. Her main techniques are aimed at helping to arrange right priorities, to change the system of values that has not yet been formed and, of course, to promote healthy lifestyle life. Prevention activities can take the form of lessons, games or tests.
In general, prevention is divided into several types, depending on the complexity of the deviation:
- Primary. All actions are aimed at eliminating the factors that provoked the emergence of antisocial behavior and, staying away from these factors, form a person's resistance to their effects.
- Secondary. This includes work with a risk group, that is, with individuals who have had neuropsychiatric disorders, or with those who have a tendency to antisocial behavior, but have not yet manifested themselves.
- Tertiary. Direct intervention of doctors with further treatment.
Summing up
Asocial is different. He is reserved, uncommunicative, emotional instability and the desire to be alone. Asocial individuals want to stay away from society. What provoked such zeal? Wrong system of values, difficult circumstances or simple non-acceptance of the main part of the rules and norms? There is no reliable answer to this question. After all, on the one hand, an antisocial person can be dangerous and mentally unbalanced, but on the other hand, it can be a common person who wants to change this world for the better, and he has no desire to refuse communication, there is simply not enough time.
Antisocial personality- A person who has an underdeveloped (or perverted) sense of responsibility, low moral values, and a lack of interest in others. Another name for an antisocial personality is a sociopath. Characteristics of an antisocial personality Behavior is almost entirely determined by a person's own needs.
Painful reactions, frustrations to the state of one's own displeasure.
The desire for immediate deliverance (and deliverance at any cost) from unpleasant sensations.
Impulsiveness, the tendency to live in the moment.
The extraordinary ease of lying.
Often very skillfully play roles.
Unstable self-esteem.
The need to excite oneself (to excite).
Inability to change one's behavior as a result of punishment.
Surrounding people are often often perceived as attractive, intelligent, charming people.
Easily come into contact, especially easily converge on the basis of entertainment.
Lack of genuine empathy for others.
Lack of feelings of shame or guilt for their actions.
Three groups of factors contributing to the development of an antisocial personality are presented below: biological determinants, features of the relationship between parents and the child, style of thinking.
Biological factors Research suggests genetic correlates of antisocial behavior. Identical twins have twice the concordance for criminal behavior than related twins, making it clear that this behavior is partly heritable.
Adoption studies show that the crimes of adopted boys are similar to those of their biological fathers.
It is also noted that antisocial individuals have low excitability, which is why they, with the help of impulsive and dangerous actions, seek to receive stimulation that causes appropriate sensations.
Family factors Research also shows that the quality of parental care received by a child with a history of hyperactivity and behavioral problems determines to a large extent whether or not they develop into an antisocial personality.
Children who are often left unattended or who are poorly cared for for long periods of time are much more likely to engage in criminal behavior patterns.
Also, children whose parents are not involved in their daily lives are more likely to become asocial.
Biological and family factors often coincide, which enhances their effect. Children with behavioral problems often have neuropsychological problems resulting from maternal drug use, poor intrauterine nutrition, pre- and post-natal toxicity, abuse, birth complications, and low birth weight. Such children are more likely to be irritable, impulsive, awkward, hyperactive, inattentive. They slowly learn the material at school, which over time leaves a strong imprint on the child's self-esteem.
Thinking style In children with behavioral disorders, an inadequate picture of the world, the processing of information about social interactions occurs in such a way that they develop aggressive reactions to these interactions. They expect aggression from other children and adults, interpret their actions based on the assumption of malevolence.
Children with behavioral disorders tend to consider any negative action of their peers directed at them not as accidental, but as deliberate. Low level intellectual development encourages such a child to reduce everything to someone's "evil initiative."
Not knowing how to behave assertively, the child eventually comes to the conclusion that aggression is the most reliable and effective tool.
The responses of others to the child's aggression usually only lead to the strengthening of the idea of the need for aggression.
Thus, a vicious circle of interactions develops, supporting and inspiring the child's aggressive and antisocial behavior.
Literature Maklakov A. G. General psychology. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001.
