Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and Treatment of Antisocial Personality Disorder

Abstract

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) has a distinct cognitive proile according to cognitive theory of personality disorders. Antisocial individuals' view of the world is personal rather than interpersonal. They cannot accept another's point of view over their own. As such, they cannot take on the role of another. Their actions are not based on choices in a social sense because of this cognitive limitation. Cognitive theory of personality disorders conceptualizes personality disorder including the ASPD, according to their basic beliefs or schemas. The content of beliefs can vary in diferent personality disorders. Antisocial patients view themselves as loners, autonomous, and strong. Some of them see themselves as having been abused and mistreated by society and therefore justify victimizing others because they believe that they have been victimized. Their view about other people is very negative; they see others as exploitative and thus deserving of being exploited in retaliation. In this chapter, after overviewing general features of ASPD, we aim to give an explanation how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) conceptualizes personality disorders in general and ASPD in particular and highlight the important implementations of CBT and schema therapy.

Why Is Maternal Control Harmful? The Relation between Maternal Control, Insecure Attachment and Antisocial Personality Disorder Features in Chinese College Students: A Sequential Mediation Model

“…Of note, the main predictors were assessed by college students’ retrospective negative experiences in childhood; that is, participants’ response to maternal parenting style, PAN and mother negative loving were mainly carried out through perceiving, which mainly reflects the cognitive component of these variables. From this perspective, the cognitive–behavioral theory of ASPD [ 19 ] can provide more practical information: individuals with ASPD may perceive more maltreatment from others and society, and they are more inclined to think that others do not care about them or will even harm them [ 20 ].…”

“…The feeling of lack of maternal love accelerates the formation of a negative internal working model [ 45 , 46 ] with a maladaptive other-schema: others do not love me and are unfriendly to me [ 48 ], which is consistent with the cognitive characteristics of ASPD [ 20 ]. Furthermore, Ainsworth and Bowlby (1991) [ 49 ] considered that the central tenet of attachment theory is that early interactions with caregivers shape the development of personality throughout life, and several studies provided support for this argument [ 11 , 50 ].…”

“…As a typical type of abuse, mental abuse refers to the neglect and antipathy of the primary caregiver perceived by children [ 39 ] and was found to be positively related to ASPD [ 13 , 40 , 41 ]. The abuse-ASPD link can be explained by cognitive–behavioral theory; that is, individuals who perceived childhood abuse would believe that they have been victimized and justify victimizing others, and then they consider others as exploitative and thus deserving of being abused in retaliation [ 20 ].…”

“…According to the cognitive-behavior theory of PDs [ 19 ], ASPD contains a distinct maladaptive cognitive profile [ 20 , 21 ]. ASPD individuals view themselves as loners and autonomous; some see themselves as having been mistreated by others and therefore justify victimizing others for believing that they have been victimized.…”

“…ASPD individuals view themselves as loners and autonomous; some see themselves as having been mistreated by others and therefore justify victimizing others for believing that they have been victimized. Meanwhile, they believe that their offensive peers deserve being humiliated [ 20 ].…”