Lovefraud invites you to complete a survey about your experience with a sociopath/psychopath/narcissist in order to help professionals diagnose this disorder properly.
Two days ago, the American Psychiatric Association released a draft of the fifth edition its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). This book is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health and other professionals. The revision has been underway for a decade.
A work group of 11 doctors and psychologists focused on the section about personality and personality disorders. They have recommended significant changes to the description of antisocial personality disorder, which is also referred to as sociopathy and psychopathy. In fact, one of the suggestions is to change the name of the personality disorder to “antisocial/psychopathic type.”
The new description of the disorder is much closer to what most of us at Lovefraud have experienced. You can read the description here:
Antisocial/Psychopathic Type
The American Psychiatric Association has invited public comment on the draft of DSM 5, and Lovefraud is taking the doctors up on their invitation. We thought the best way to do it would be to survey our readers, asking you how well the proposed description of antisocial/psychopathic type matches your experience with one (or more) of these individuals.
Please take the survey. This is serious, so be thoughtful and accurate in your responses. It will probably take you about 15 minutes, so please start it when you are sure you have time to complete it.
The survey will be open until March 3, 2010. After that, we will tabulate and analyze the data. We will prepare a report of the findings for the American Psychiatric Association. The results will also be published on Lovefraud.
Go to the survey:
Slim Jim:)
‘Basically I think 2 concepts should be incorporated into the word. 1.) that it is systematic and a mind-set and goal the same no matter who the relationship target is 2.) that the person uses deceit to take without any concern for the well being of the host.’
how succinct. fantastic.x
slimjim & blueskies:
parasitic is a good word, as is detached but not sure detachment is correct. Parasitic Detachment Disorder?
I think that’s great.
vm0209 – darlin’ are you new here? I haven’t seen you post before – but i have only been here a few months.
what can we do to help out?
sounds like your kids are older, if not out of the house.
what kind of stuff are you dealing with (health, fear, lack of resources and support, etc.)? maybe we can help you figure it out.
i want you out also.
best,
one step
Zen, slimjim & blueskies – it would be parasitic *attachment* disorder.
(the disorder is the lack of bonding)
this is striking a chord in me. it denotes their relationship to their environment as being parasitic, and says that they are incapable of ‘normal’ attachment.
then layers of criminality and violence type tendencies could be built on to the label to give a specific picture of the person:
homicidal parasitic attachment disorder
Sadistic parasitic attachment disorder
Violent parasitic attachment disorder
Incestuous parasitic attachment disorder
Sexually abusive parasitic attachment disorder
etc.
HPAD/SPAD/VPAD/SAPAD
i think that the word parasitic encapsulates narcissism well also.
What about those sociopaths that are not impulsive (at least kept under tight control) and reckless? The ones that are “pillars of the community” have nice, friendly pretty wives, tenured positions as professors, rehabbing nice houses with a mortgages?
Those who slowly and steadily eroding other peoples lives to gain something for themselves? So quietly and planned that it cannot even be seen. No drama, no beatings, no money frauds, just a constant drip-drip of backhanded compliments that escalate to cruel jokes and threats, then when their vicitm is weak enough, they give them a final spin just to confuse and erase the last sense of self. Done so smoothly and quietly.
The all American Mr. Helpful and Mr. Decent in public, so good at mimicking helpfulness and empahty that it almost impossible to tell what’s real? Only the people closest to him find out that he is nothing on the inside? In public he is upstanding citizen, in private he is a mind-spinning-fucking predator, psychologically distroying his partner, looking at amputee fetish and collecting his own urine in soda bottles.
greenfern – when you ask ‘what about…’ what are you asking?
Seeing the list for the Antisocial/Psychopathic Type I wonder…
Is it possible for someone to be that type even if they do not fit the last 3 categories? That is: Irresponsibility, recklessness and impulsivity?
The sp I encountered has trained himself to be very methodical, planned, and patient. Kind of like a predator waiting in the grass, master at the hunting game.
I hope this makes some sense….
Okay, got it.
And the answer is yes.
Regardless of how disordered they are, they still have individual personalities. i hate doing art work that demands i be methodical (like printmaking) and another person would thrive on it.
I would suspect that the sp you encountered got ‘pleasure’ from the hunt itself. It may well be part of his/ her motivation for being outwardly controlled. The spath sounds ‘clinical’.
There is a story in the news about a Colonel in the Cdn. army, the C.O. of an army base, who has been charged with 2 murders and two home invasions, and concurrent rapes. I suspect he would fit the profile you have presented also.
I am so sorry – how chilling and heart rending this must be.
one_step_at_a_time says:
“Zen, slimjim & blueskies ”“ it would be parasitic *attachment* disorder.
(the disorder is the lack of bonding)”
well duh~ you’re right!