Asocial lifestyle or mentally. Asocial personalities and their problems

In psychology, there is a large-scale concept of society. This is the society in which we all live and whose laws we must obey. Social personalities do “everything right”, follow laws and regulations, observe moral principles. Asocial individuals live according to their own ideas.

Who are antisocial people? These are the ones who follow their impulses and desires. They are not interested in the public and generally accepted rules. The main thing is the satisfaction of their needs, even contrary to the desires of others. Them character traits- unscrupulousness, deceit, impulsiveness, excitability, insensitivity, lack of conscience. Antisocial personalities are not affected by the assessment of close people and friends, if any.

Individuals with deviant (deviant) behavior perceive society as evil. This is an obstacle to achieving certain goals. Society is a threat. An asocial person wants to live according to his own principles, and if society does not accept his opinion, aggression arises. In antisocial men, this is expressed by violence, in women - by deceit and cunning. These people go to the deception without feeling guilty.

These comrades are not capable of love. They can only take without giving anything in return. They are prone to partner manipulation and blackmail.

Typically, these personality disorders come from a genetic predisposition. It is also possible the influence of a dysfunctional family. Indifference, hostile relations between parents leave their imprint on the mind of the child.

Now consider who can be attributed to asocial personality types?

1. Criminals, murderers, rapists, thieves. All those people who commit crimes against the person. They may not be aware of their criminal actions. Just at that moment they wanted to do just that: kill, rape, steal.

This also includes serial maniacs. They are also driven by a certain need. Desires can be different, in psychology there is a clear distinction between them. Someone is driven by the goal of making the world a better place. To rid him, for example, of females, visually reminiscent of the criminal's mother. Someone experiences sexual dissatisfaction. Others act ostensibly under the influence higher powers that "order" them to do something.

This type of well-known antisocial personalities include Andrei Chikatilo, Jack the Ripper and other less famous maniacs.

2. People with various mental disorders. One of the most striking examples is Billy Milligan. A person with many personalities. In total, 23 personalities lived in his head, 10 of which were the main ones. Depending on the life situations, one or another representative of Billy came to the fore.

3. Alcoholics, drug addicts. People leading an unhealthy lifestyle, prone to deviant behavior due to drugs and doping. Uncle Petya from the next entrance can be attributed to this type, who has not been “drying out” for 10 years and at 40 looks 60.

4. Prostitutes. Women who are promiscuous. They produce unnecessary children, who are given to the upbringing of the state. According to the version of the ubiquitous attendants on the bench, Svetka from the 3rd entrance belongs to this type. Although Svetlana may not be a prostitute at all, but a young woman in search of her happiness.

Antisocial personality disorder is expressed as an unstable psychopathy, people with such a disease (sociopaths) lead asocial image life, are deprived of the highest moral feelings and do not obey generally accepted laws. They are aimed only at self-satisfaction, while neglecting the possible consequences.

A hallmark of sociopaths is the inability to control and limit their actions and emotions due to lack of willpower.

The male gender is the most affected by this pathology. As a rule, they come from dysfunctional families and the lower stratum of society. Many people behind bars have antisocial personality disorder, brought there because of the need for thrills, their impulsiveness, irresponsibility and indifference to generally accepted social norms. And, despite the repeated commission of illegal activities and the punishment of some individuals for them, they do not learn the lessons from negative experience.

Antisocial personality disorder, coexisting with other types of mental illness, such as schizoid or paranoid personality disorder, can lead to a more serious adjustment disorder in modern society.

Stages of development and causes of antisocial disorder in humans

Individuals who have given type disorders, already from an early age are distinguished by selfishness, immorality, cynicism, they lack spiritual interests. Such individuals are very cruel and deceitful, often they mock those who are weaker, younger and defenseless animals. They early formed a hostile attitude towards relatives and people close to them. During puberty, antisocial personalities openly show their deviant behavior, for example, arrange an escape from their home, do not go to classes educational institutions commit cruel acts, set fires or damage property, steal, vagrancy.

When communicating with other people, they show a quick temper, which sometimes leads to aggression and anger. With peers, and not only, fights, swearing. They do not tolerate a permanent place of activity. Their track record includes multiple absenteeism and a constant change of work.

Such individuals are deprived of emotional experiences, do not value traditions and foundations, have no attachment to relatives and friends, disrespect the family, violate generally accepted norms and laws. After some time, such people end up in prison. In some individuals, upon reaching the age of 40, antisocial behavior decreases, in others, the entire life cycle continues.

Antisocial personality disorder is explained by several theories: behavioral, psychodynamic, biological and cognitive. Let's consider in more detail:

Other behaviorists believe that some parents inadvertently develop antisocial behavior in their offspring by constantly reinforcing their children's hostile behavior. For example, when a child has distinguished himself by bad behavior (ignores the requests of his father or mother, responds to them with violent methods), in order to achieve reconciliation, parents make concessions. By this action, they develop in their child stubbornness, or even rigidity.

The possibility of developing this mental disorder as a result of past illnesses and head trauma. In this case, the patient has neurological disorders.

Clinical manifestations

In a sick person, dissocial personality disorder is manifested by obvious complacency, a firm conviction that one is right, supported by a lack of criticism of oneself. Any censure or condemnation of him is regarded negatively.

Such individuals are negligent about finances. As a result of drinking alcohol, they become vicious towards others, arrange conflicts, often leading to fights. People with this disorder are prone to robbery, theft, acts of violence, and fraud. At the same time, they are driven not only by self-interest, but also by a thirst for the humiliation of other people.

Individuals with such a pathology will go to any lengths for their own benefit. They lack compassion, conscience, a sense of remorse. Because of their egoism and inability to sympathize and empathize, they often manipulate close and surrounding people.

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder, in order to achieve their goal, may lie, threaten suicide, imitate signs of fictitious somatic diseases.

People with this pathology are always trying to get as much out of life as possible using forbidden methods.

They don't care about possible Negative consequences because feelings of anxiety and guilt are suppressed in them. If their unscrupulous misdeeds are revealed, they can easily find justification for their actions.

A well-known psychotherapist and psychologist, Eric Berne, identified two types of people with this disorder:

Personalities with an active type of mental disorder openly demonstrate their antisocial character, while passive ones are deceitful and secretive.

Diagnostics

Antisocial personality disorder is expressed by the following behavior:

In addition to these signs, individuals with this type of disorder are characterized by excessive nervousness. In early and pubertal age, in many cases, pathology is diagnosed as a result of conduct disorder.

Treatment and prognosis of antisocial personality disorder

About one third of the total population is treated for this disease. Patients with this pathology rarely seek qualified help, as they believe that they do not have any reason for this. But even if a person with such a personality disorder feels that he cannot find common language with other people, and comes for a consultation to an appointment with a psychotherapist, then the likelihood that his condition can be improved is small. It depends on the fact that antisocial personalities are not capable of experiencing and stable interaction with a specialist.

Often, the initiators of the treatment of such a disease in a person are law enforcement officers, workers educational institutions other. But the effectiveness of such therapy is low, rather than self-treatment, since in this case a person experiences not only a reluctance to establish contact with a specialist, but also develops internal resistance to such an action. An exception to this treatment are self-help groups, in which patients are not afraid of being judged and rely on the support of those involved.

Therapy of this type of mental disorder will be effective if the treatment is carried out by an experienced specialist - a psychotherapist who does not succumb to provocations and manipulations of the patient, and a positive result will be achieved if a small number of guided patients participate in complex therapy.

Medicines are indicated if the patient has pronounced impulsivity and an anxious or depressive state. In view of the high probability of the formation of a dependent state to drugs, and as a result, a decrease in the motive for the psychotherapeutic process, small courses with small doses are prescribed.

The prognosis of such a disease in many cases is negative, since such a personality disorder is almost impossible to completely cure.

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 also congenital psychopathy, which lead a person to all sorts of breakdowns, pathological reactions to ordinary situations, etc. Weaker in severity disorders are called character accentuation - these are breakdowns that manifest themselves in certain areas 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 usually referred to as an 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 there are violations of behavior - social norms do not seem binding on 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 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 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, 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 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 the aggressive and antisocial behavior of the child.

The term in the title is quite common, used both by professionals who encounter such behavior in the course of their work, and by ordinary people. However, none of the dictionaries - psychological, sociological, philosophical, ethical - contains it, and this applies to all Soviet-Russian publications of the 20th century. Paradox! But this happens when a word seems so clear and unambiguous that no one finds it difficult to clarify its definition ... Let's try to deal with this mysterious and mystical concept.

human behavior in broad sense- this is his way of life and actions, the way he behaves in relation to society, ideas, other people, to the external and inner world, to itself, considered from the side of their regulation social norms morality, aesthetics and law. It is axiomatically believed that all our behavior is socially conditioned and therefore, naturally, all of it is social, but it can also be asocial.

Asocial (from the Greek "a" - a negative particle) - a characteristic of an individual or group, whose behavior is contrary to generally accepted norms. Hence antisocial behavior - behavior that violates social norms (criminal, administrative, family) and contrary to the rules of human society, activities, customs, traditions of individuals and society as a whole. It turns out that we are talking about a violation of legal and moral norms, but the trap lies in the fact that legal norms, even if they are violated, are always clearly defined and in each state there is a single system of legal norms. Moral norms are not written, but implied, they are enshrined in traditions, customs, religion. That is, there is a fan of ideas about moral norms, and there can be as many of them as there are carriers of these ideas. Similar is the case with the concepts of morality - morality and antisocial behavior. Everyone knows them, uses them, but it is impossible to find a clear difference between them in any work on ethics, not to mention the fact that these concepts themselves also do not have clear definitions. Morality is a kind of combination of "I" and "You", the possibility of dialogue, unity. Society separates, and morality acts as a kind of compensation for alienation. This is a value that is important for each of us. For example, hedonistic morality, where the main principle is pleasure, selfishness, is not social. Why? A person is concerned only with himself and seeks to get a maximum of positive emotions and a minimum of negative ones. Sounds tempting. And why should we strive for negative emotions? The catch is that there is concern only for oneself, and the interests of the other are simply not taken into account. Hence the basic contradiction. Inside his morality, a person retains ideals and values, and morality acts as a way or form of their implementation. When interacting with other people whose interests he voluntarily or involuntarily ignores, his behavior will be perceived as antisocial.

If we consider in a historical perspective the ideas about the rules of human behavior, then the ancient Greek views, which have become very popular in our time, explained the conditionality of the norms of human communication by global, cosmic processes and orders. Aristotle considered positive behavior that establishes order, and negative behavior that violates, while the main concept for him was the dichotomy "fair-unfair". And antisocial behavior for him acted as unfair. Further ideas about right and wrong in human relations and actions were accompanied by the formalization of certain rational rules, but initially it was about social regulation behavior, carried out with the help of these rules.

You can look at antisocial behavior from the point of view of adaptation - maladaptation. Then we will regard social behavior as adaptive, and asocial behavior as maladaptive. But will it help? After all, it is well known that it was maladaptive behavior that led to the progress of mankind. So, ritual burials, rock art did not have any utilitarian, adaptive purpose. Hence, it is quite obvious that maladjustment can be with a plus sign. Of course, antisocial behavior is maladaptive behavior, but, unfortunately, apart from an obvious statement, this does not give us anything due to the vagueness of the concept of “maladjustment”, which aggravates the ambiguity of the original term.

The closest thing to the concept of "asocial behavior" is the term "deviant", i.e. non-normative behavior that deviates from social norm. Deviation from the norm is called asocial primarily because the norm itself is social.

The well-known lawyer V. N. Kudryavtsev uses the concept of “socially negative behavior” as an analogue of the term “asocial behavior”, which is a relatively common phenomenon; therefore, it involves, as a rule, the development and implementation of organized forms of combating it. Such behavior "does harm to the entire nation, negatively affects the development of the individual, hinders the forward movement of society" 2 . The legal literature emphasizes that a clear separation various kinds social deviations are not always possible, for example, the same behavior may include a violation of administrative, moral and aesthetic standards. At the level of the individual, socially negative behavior is manifested in crimes, offenses, immoral offenses, violations of the rules of human society.

The term “criminal” or “criminal” behavior is also close to antisocial behavior, but in terms of volume, criminal or criminal behavior is much less common than antisocial, which includes other forms of offenses and immoral behavior.

Antisocial behavior is also considered as a kind of aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is a manifestation of aggressiveness, expressed in destructive actions, the purpose of which is to cause harm. At different people it is expressed in many ways: physically or verbally, actively or passively, directly or indirectly, but the reality is that there are no people in whom it would be completely absent. People differ only in the volume and proportion of aggressive patterns in their behavioral repertoire. Numerous theories of aggression reveal and explain the origins of human aggressiveness, its mechanisms, but none of them says that its complete absence is possible, although all kinds of ways to control and correct it are offered. Humanistic psychologists speak directly about aggression as a form of natural energy, remembering the energy of wind, sun, water, which can kill or help. A person can suppress the energy of aggression, and then it is fraught with diseases. Another option is when a wave of energy breaks out in the form of words and deeds, sometimes constructive, sometimes not. Not general rule to express aggression. The question is raised about its transformation, about changing the target and the form of manifestation. That is, aggressive behavior can be destructive and constructive or creative. One of the founders of the American wing of existential psychotherapy, Rollo May, associates aggression with the manifestation of power, and each person has five levels of power in potential. The first level is the power to live, it manifests itself in how the child cries, achieving what he wants, from what he draws his strength and how he realizes it. If the actions of the child do not evoke a response from others, then he does not develop, and the extreme manifestation of such impotence is death. The power to live is not good or evil, it is primary in relation to them. And it must manifest itself throughout life, otherwise a person is waiting for psychoses, neuroses or violence. The second level is self-affirmation. We not only live, but also need to affirm our being, defending our significance and thereby gaining self-respect. The third level of strength is the upholding of one's "I". This behavior is characterized greater strength and outward orientation than self-affirmation. We have a reaction to an attack, and we are ready to respond to it. A person defends his own and other people's interests, and often others' interests with more energy than his own, but this is also a form of defending his "I", since he defends these interests. The fourth level of strength is aggression, which appears when there is no opportunity to defend one's "I". And here a person is introduced into someone else's space, partially taking it for himself. If we are deprived of the opportunity to throw out aggressive tendencies for some time, then this will result in depression, neurosis, psychosis or violence. The fifth level of power is violence, it occurs when all other ways of asserting one's power are blocked. Thus, each of us has a negative side that contributes to the potential for good and evil, and without which we cannot live. Important, although not easy to understand, is the acceptance of the fact that a significant part of our success is due to contradictions generated by negative moments. Life, according to R. May, is the achievement of good not away from evil, but in spite of it.

From this it is clear that aggressive behavior is a concept much broader than antisocial behavior; on the other hand, they may overlap. Over the 20 years of existence at the Faculty of Psychology, specialization in legal psychology, a solid array of data has been obtained on the characteristics of aggression of persons with both social and a social behavior. So, in the diploma study of E. P. Bulatchik, the characteristics of aggressiveness in individuals with different types antisocial behavior, namely: persons who committed thefts and murders. It turned out that killers have significantly higher levels of aggression, especially directive aggression, which manifests itself in setting superiority over other people in the expectation that others will behave in accordance with their interests. At the same time, the killers completely lack the need to reckon with other people, to take them into account. Similar results were found when comparing minors with the same types of antisocial behavior. When such a type of antisocial behavior as prostitution was studied (thesis by I. Volkova, 1994), it turned out that, according to the level indicators of aggression, the differences between female students and representatives of one of the oldest professions were found precisely in aggression of the directive type, and among female students directivity is much higher. Thus, it is impossible to put an equal sign between the severity of aggression by directive type and antisocial behavior. Moreover, studies conducted among teachers and kindergarten teachers, whose behavior is absolutely social, show that these indicators are much higher for them.

Often the level of aggression of persons with antisocial behavior is higher than with social behavior, but it was also revealed that " specific gravity» aggression in the behavioral repertoire has significantly greater value, how absolute indicators aggression. Schoolchildren of ordinary and elite schools, students of various universities, including the St. Petersburg Institute of Theology, teachers, doctors, kindergarten teachers, bank employees, lawyers, psychologists - all have a certain level of aggression. For some it is higher, for some it is lower, but there were no such subjects who had no indicators of aggression at all! And of course, as a rule, the difference between individuals with antisocial and social behavior was not in the levels of aggression, but in its weight, volume and place, which it occupies among other behavioral patterns.

A number of studies of people with antisocial behavior have shown that there is a relationship between such behavior and impulsivity. Impulsiveness refers to behavior without first considering its consequences. Back in 1934, D. Guilford, within the framework of a factorial approach to the study of personality, was the first to single out the factor of impulsivity. Later, G. Eisenck undertook a special study of the factor structure of impulsivity on a large sample of subjects. Correlation of impulsivity with the main personal factors found that the impulsivity factor was positively correlated with factors such as psychopathy and neuroticism, and was found to be weakly associated with the extraversion factor. These data allowed G. Eysenck to consider the factor of impulsivity as carrying a high psychopathological tone, which can cause the occurrence of antisocial behavior. G. Eysenck's conclusion was confirmed in a number of works by other researchers, who noted that pronounced impulsivity closely correlated with various pathopsychological symptoms (hyperkinesis, etc.), as well as with a tendency to antisocial behavior, regardless of age. So, in 1987 in the USA, S. Hormuth conducted a study during which 120 criminals (who committed crimes of varying severity), 90 soldiers and 30 workers were studied. The study was aimed at studying the impact of antisocial behavior on the control of impulsive tendencies and on the personality as a whole. The results showed that criminals, compared with soldiers and workers, show less control of impulsive tendencies, are more aggressive, prone to depression and neurosis, are more open and emotionally unstable.

However, not only foreign, but also some of our researchers noted that impulsiveness is characteristic of those who committed antisocial actions. Thus, a study conducted by V. P. Golubev and Yu. N. Kudryakov of persons who committed robberies and robberies showed that they are characterized by: maintaining a distance between yourself and the outside world.

Studies conducted among criminals (murderers convicted of acquisitive and violent crimes, embezzlers, thieves), conducted by Yu. M. Antonyan and others, showed that the leading personality traits of most of them are impulsiveness, high interpersonal relationships, alienation and maladaptation. The highest impulsiveness with low self-control was observed among those convicted of acquisitive and violent crimes.

One of the most recent studies of impulsivity and antisocial behavior was carried out in the framework of thesis I. Yu. Vasilyeva (2001). Adolescents with antisocial behavior (petty hooliganism, leaving home, a tendency to alcoholism) at the age of 15 were studied in the amount of 60 people, equally divided by gender. As a result, it turned out that there were no significant gender differences in the level of impulsivity among the subjects. The study also showed that the impulsiveness of adolescents with antisocial behavior is interconnected with such personality traits as aggression, directiveness, anxiety, egocentrism, high level tension, fear, a tendency to open aggressive behavior, hostility, high self-esteem, high energy level.

So, by antisocial behavior we will understand socially negative behavior that violates legal and generally accepted moral norms, related in content to the concept of “deviant behavior” (which, apparently, is more voluminous), characterized by a high probability of manifestation of aggression in open behavior, its high specific gravity among other behavioral patterns, unformed attitudes towards social cooperation, selfishness, egocentrism and impulsivity.