this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
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This kind of thing just hurts all the regular non-fascist spicybrained people. He’s not dangerous because of a mental illness, he’s dangerous because he keeps doing horrible things on purpose with full knowledge and self control and the backing of other powerful assholes.
Being a psycopath/sociopath/narcisist is not a mental illness, but a personality disorder. The affected person does not suffer from it, but the surrounding people. It is dangerous, and it cannot be treated.
That is simply untrue. Personality disorders are a class of mental illness, and people definitely suffer from them. Both NPD and ASPD are in the DSM and have treatment available. I'm not saying they don't hurt folks, but saying it can't be treated is also not the way to go.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder
Where in those sources does it say that it's an illness? It says it's a disorder.
Also, it states the prognoses is "poor".
That is trying to play with semantics. A disorder is an illness
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder
That doesn't mean people should not get treatment or that treatment is not available. Saying there is no treatment encourages folks with NPD or ASPD to not seek treatment, which is actually what puts people in danger (themselves and others). Also, part of the reason the prognosis is poor is because we don't have enough data, so instead of discouraging treatment, we should encourage it so we can actually learn more.
Semantics are important here to differenciate between different ways of dealing with it properly. People should know that narcissists/psycopaths/sociopaths cannot change to the better, because the inherent nature is not accepting any flaw. Only by knowing this other people can protect themselves by not keeping contact to them. It's the only way to protect yourself.
Then you should probably get your semantics correct. Did you look at the definition of mental disorder that was linked? Because the first sentence says "A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness,[6] a mental health condition,[7] or a psychiatric disability,[2] is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning." If you follow the source listed under that [6], the source from the National Library of Medicine says "Mental disorders (or mental illnesses) are conditions that affect your thinking, feeling, mood, and behavior" in the first sentence.
Again, this is simply not true and the stigma that it presents is what actually hurts people. From wikipedia: "Management of narcissistic personality disorder has not been well studied, however many treatments tailored to NPD exist.[8][1]" If you follow those sources, one leads to a book dedicated to treating NPD. The second leads to a Journal that has a treatment outline.
And: "Psychotherapy, also known as "talk" therapy, has been found to help treat patients with ASPD.[178] Schema therapy is also being investigated as a treatment for ASPD.[179] A review by Charles M. Borduin features the strong influence of multisystemic therapy (MST) that could potentially improve this issue. However, this treatment requires complete cooperation and participation of all family members.[180]" Following the sources on those pages lead to studies outlining treatment of that disorder.
I understand people with these disorders can and do hurt the people around them, but saying there is no treatment only gets more people hurt. Do not encourage people to not get help, that is fucked up in so many ways.
You linked "Mental Disorder", which can be a whole bunch of things including mental illnesses, but I'm talking about "Personality Disorder" specifically, which can almost never be cured.
The question is who we should try to protect. You can tell a narcisist to seek help for sure, but also tell others to stay away from that narcisist until he/she has changed to an empathetic being (which rarely happens). Narcisists don't see a reason to change, as they feel entiled to see other people in their lives as resources. Each of them is hurting many people through manipulation and explotation. If you meet a psycopath/sociotpath/narcisist, there's only one advice: run!
Personality disorders are a class of mental disorder, which is what I said in the beginning before needing to explain mental disorder and mental illness are the same thing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorder
NPD and ASPD are class B disorders (2 of 4), but there are Class A and Class C as well. All are treatable to some degree or another. Again, I understand people can be hurt, but please please please stop with the generalization. It puts a lot of stigma on people, makes them feel like there is no chance of treatment, and overall makes things worse.