Raising Adam Lanza's.. Raising 9-Year-Old a Psychopaths

[Michigan Alum]

112. The proper term for this disorder is Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) (per the DSM-IV TR)

By the way, with the very limited info that we have about Adam Lanza, it doesn't sound to me like he has that disorder. I base this only on what has been reported by people who knew him. A proper diagnosis can only be done by a person who has interviewed family members, teachers, friends AND have interviewed the client multiple times. And since I have done none of the above, I am inappropriately offering up my opinion.

http://behavenet.com/antisocial-personality-disorder

it used to be called Psychopathic and Sociopathic Disorder and all other kinds of names in the past. They change the names of these disorders about every 10 years (just to confuse everyone). AND there is a new version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association) coming out in about a year so who knows if they will change the name AGAIN. argggggg! Which means everyone will need to get the new DSM V and toss out their DSM IV's and their Synopsis of Psychiatry books (which I just bought this year).

I've been in the field since 1981 and I can't keep up with all the name changes, the theories about what causes these disorders. People in the field use old terminology and theories all the time too - so the general population can hardly be expected to keep up with this.

In addition, for obvious reasons, complete studies of people's brains cannot be done at this time (things are getting better with a lot of the brain-imaging equipment, etc.) so compared to data about the heart, we know maybe about 1/20th as much about the brain (this is probably being generous on my part).