What is Sociopthic disorder?

Question

My step daughter is diagnosed with it. What is the prognosis and treatment for this disorder? What type of medications are used when this diagnosis is given? Any information would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Sociopathy is chiefly characterized by something wrong with the person's conscience. They either don't have one, it's full of holes like Swiss cheese, or they are somehow able to completely neutralize or negate any sense of conscience or future time perspective. Sociopaths only care about fulfilling their own needs and desires - selfishness and egocentricity to the extreme. Everything and everybody else is mentally twisted around in their minds as objects to be used in fulfilling their own needs and desires. They often believe they are doing something good for society, or at least nothing that bad. The term "sociopath" is frequently used by psychologists and sociologists alike in referring to persons whose unsocialized character is due primarily to parental failures (usually fatherlessness) rather than an inherent feature of temperament. Lykken (1995), for example, clearly distinguishes between the sociopath (who is socialized into becoming a psychopath) and a "true" psychopath (who is born that way). However, this may only describe the "common sociopath", as there are at least four (4) different subtypes -- common, alienated, aggressive, and dyssocial. Commons are characterized mostly by their lack of conscience; the alienated by their inability to love or be loved; aggressives by a consistent sadistic streak; and dyssocials by an ability to abide by gang rules, as long as those rules are the wrong rules. As Stout (2005) indicates, it only takes three of the following to be defined as a sociopath, and some common sociopathic traits include:

Egocentricity; Callousness; Impulsivity; Conscience defect; Exaggerated sexuality; Excessive boasting; Risk taking; Inability to resist temptation; Antagonistic, deprecating attitude toward the opposite sex; Lack of interest in bonding with a mate.

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n. One who is affected with a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior.

Answer 2

It surprises me that your daughter would be diagnosed as a sociopath as it is no longer a DSM diagnoses.

Anti Social Personality Disorder - ASPD is the diagnoses that replaced sociopath and psychopath.

There isn't any real cure for ASPD but you can help by setting clear and fair boundaries and following through with any punishments for breaking the rules should she do so.

Therapy can also be helpful to a point same with meds.

Answer 3

Sociopath: One who is affected with a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior.

Sypmtoms are usually a disregard for authority, difficulty in understanding or accepting social skills, unable to establish and maintain friendships, disregard for social behavioral standards.

Some people often confuse the term sociopath with psycopath.

Answer 4

Diagnosis of Antisocial personality disorder is significantly more common among men than among women [1].

Central to understanding individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, is that they appear to experience a limited range of human emotions. This can explain their lack of empathy for the suffering of others, since they cannot experience the emotion associated with either empathy or suffering. Risk-seeking behavior and substance abuse may be attempts to escape feeling empty or emotionally void. The rage exhibited by psychopaths and the anxiety associated with certain types of antisocial personality disorder may represent the limit of emotion experienced, or there may be physiological responses without analogy to emotion experienced by others. [citation needed]

According to the older theory of Freudian psychoanalysis, a person with antisocial personality disorder has a strong id and ego that overpowers the superego. The theory proposes that internalized morals of our Unconscious mind are restricted from surfacing to the ego and consciousness. However, this explanation provides no insight into the cause or treatment of the problem.[citation needed]

Research has shown that individuals with antisocial personality disorder are indifferent to the possibility of physical pain or many punishments, and show no indications that they experience fear when so threatened. This may explain their apparent disregard for the consequences of their actions, and their aforementioned lack of empathy.[citation needed]

One approach to explaining antisocial personality disorder behaviors is put forth by sociobiology, a science that attempts to understand and explain a wide variety of human behavior based on evolutionary biology. One route to doing so is by exploring evolutionarily stable strategies; that is, attempting to discern whether the APD phenotype has evolved because it gains fitness specifically within, or alongside, the survival strategies of other humans exhibiting different, perhaps complementary behaviors, e.g. in a symbiotic or parasitic manner.[citation needed] For example, in one well-known 1995 paper by Linda Mealey, chronic antisocial/criminal behavior is explained as a combination of two such strategies.