Psycopathy

[thamsenman]

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Is there really no treatment for psycopathy? I have read on a lot of psychiatry-esque websites that there is no treatment for this, Aspergers, other anti-social disorders characterized by:

1) Avoidant behavior and isolation, "living off the grid"
2) Pathological lying
3) Emotional, financial exploitation of others
4) Awkward social behavior in uncontrolled settings
5) [NEW] Inner rage

 

[erg923]

In general, the treatment for any peronality disorder is tough, as they are often ego-syntonic conditions and it is unlikely you will be confronted with a patient who willing comes to your office and seeks treatment because "I think I am a psychopath." If you are interested in reading treatment/outcome literature of personality disorders, I would suggest reading anything by Bob Hare, Tom Widiger, Ted Million, and Marsha Linehan (for Borderline PD).

I dont really know what you mean by "awkward social behavior in uncontrolled settings" but social skills training for individuals who have social phobias or schzioid/avoidant features can be quite helpful for those who are truely treatment motivated.

 

[thamsenman]

In general, the treatment for any peronality disorder is tough, as they are often ego-syntonic conditions and it is unlikely you will be confronted with a patient who willing comes to your office and seeks treatment because "I think I am a psychopath." If you are interested in reading treatment/outcome literature of personality disorders, I would suggest reading anything by Bob Hare, Tom Widiger, Ted Million, and Marsha Linehan (for Borderline PD).

I dont really know what you mean by "awkward social behavior in uncontrolled settings" but social skills training for individuals who have social phobias or schzioid/avoidant features can be quite helpful for those who are truely treatment motivated.

Some people can behave quite normally, if they are in a controlled, doctor-patient environment or some other controlled environment against let's say a disco dancing bar, where there's no real structure.

 

[erg923]

Considering the video clips I have seen of people at Studio 54 in the 1970s....I doubt anyone acts normally at a Disco....😀

 

[erg923]

For the above list, I would argue the fist step would be to have a therapist who is skilled in "Motivational Interviewing"- an approach that recognizes and accepts the fact that patients approach counseling at different levels of readiness. This is particularly helpful when counseling is mandated (as is often the case with PDs), since these individual may never have thought of changing the behavior in question.The approach attempts to increase the patient's awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behavior in question. Hopefully, this process results in increasing the clients awarenes of the adverse conseqeces of their behavior, thereby helping clients envision a better future, and become increasingly motivated to achieve it. Either way, the strategy seeks to help patients think differently about their behavior and ultimately to consider what might be gained through change.

 

[loveoforganic]

Is there really no treatment for psycopathy? I have read on a lot of psychiatry-esque websites that there is no treatment for this, Aspergers, other anti-social disorders characterized by:

1) Avoidant behavior and isolation, "living off the grid"
2) Pathological lying
3) Emotional, financial exploitation of others
4) Awkward social behavior in uncontrolled settings

Those behaviors don't all match one of those disorders, muchless all of them.

Anyway, as far as psychopathy, Salekin (2006) found intensive treatment of youth scoring high on PCL-YV were significantly less likely than those getting a normal level of treatment to reoffend violently. Generally, there's not much ability to improve though. It does seem to titter off (at least the violent acts) toward late life, however.