Customer Reviews

Antisocial Behavior: Personality Disorders from Hostility to Homicide

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This book does not live up to its title. The author presents a rambling and rather pointless meander explaining bad behavior in terms of societal breakdown. He spends half of his time lamenting the destruction of common moral and ethical traditions in American society. He spends the other half implying that a rise in the number of sociopathic individuals is responsible for the moral breakdown, while at the same time suggesting the inverse hypothesis that the moral breakdown is responsible for the rise in the population of sociopaths. At no time does he present any statistical evidence for the truth of his assertions. The book at times resembles more of a rant on sociology than a scholarly work on psychology. (I am a political conservative and for the most part agree with his assessment of social mores, but this type of evaluation does not belong in a book ostensibly about psychopathy, except as an aside.)

He does not define his terms. He sprays medical terminology throughout the text implying that the reader is supposed to know the meaning without so much as a contextual reference to their meaning. The author tosses out these words like a namedropper at a party. This sentence is typical; "The phylogenic cultural and the ontogenetic individual maturation are intrinsically interlocked with inhibitions." I'm a medical professional and know the meaning of ontology and phylogeny, but I really do not see how they apply to his subject. He seems more interested in impressing the reader with his vocabulary than in educating them.

There is no subjective structure to the book. Mental illnesses, as well as personality disorders (there is a difference) can be presented in an objective, orderly fashion. Each entity should be defined and given a consistent discussion of etiology (cause), distribution, treatment, and prognosis (likelihood of cure). This author does not do this. He presents his material in a haphazard fashion, interspersed with personal anecdotes that often seem to have nothing to do with the disease he is discussing.

This author is a Freudian psychoanalyst and assumes Freudian (societal) causes for psychopathy. Other modern authors (I read a lot of them) seem to agree that the predisposition for this personality disorder is congenital (occurring at or before birth), but that the expression of the disorder is modified by early environmental factors. I believe that this author is out of touch with more modern assessments in the field.

If you want a well written, orderly discussion of psychopathy, purchase "Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare, PhD, or "Bad Boys, Bad Men" by Donald W. Black, M.D., which is particularly good if you are actualy in the throes of dealing with a problem individual.

Antisocial behavior is an extraordinarily well-written book. It reveals the psychological nature of the psychopaths. Moreover, Wolman makes an attempt to explain what factors give rise to antisocial behavior. Admittedly, he does this very well. Psychopaths are described as being indifferent, cunning, immoral, impulsive and insidious individuals. What is more, they usually show no signs of remorse for their gruesome deeds. The implication here is that they totally lack compassion for their fellow beings. Wolman unveils that psychopaths are narcissistic individuals; they have a tendency to think that they are entitled to other people's things and that they deserve to be loved. The above mentioned traits are thought to be characteristic of highly maladaptive individuals. However, Wolman also points to environmental determinants as possible causes of deviant behavior. Parents and teachers can sometimes contribute to the rise of antisocial and sociopathic behavior. Wolman emphasizes that hyper-permissive parents do not teach their children the importance of morality and consequently their children will fail to distinguish right from wrong. According to Wolman, the primary purpose of morality is to inhibit inborn instincts and impulses. Furthermore, the way that parents rear their children can be crucial. Parental rejection can adversely affect their children's self-confidence and self-reliance. Undeniably, these children will feel neglected and unwanted if their parents are not affectionate and considerate. Needless to say, abusive parents foster deviant behavior in myriad ways. Children of abusive parents are usually very aggressive, hostile and tend to hate their parents. These children cannot however behave aggressively toward their parents as they fear that they might retaliate. Instead, they behave aggressively toward weak people who are unable to fight back. In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to all students of psychology. It is very interesting and informative.

A Social Disorder

Wolman explores the foundations of antisocial behavior: pathological narcissism, self-indulgent culture, and promiscuous parenting. In an age of political correctness and moral relativism, the author does not hesitate to point to ethical upbringing as the solution. He traces the psychodynamics of deviant behavior back to childhood abuse and trauma - though he regrettably emphasizes nurture almost to the exclusion of nature. The book could use editing - but it is a worthwhile contribution to the topic. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".

The rise in sociopathic behavior among adults and children is troublesome, and this title by a leading psychologist discusses the trends, incidence and treatment of sociopathic antisocial attitudes. This not only explains the problem, it draws important correlations between causes and solutions which include social as well as personal approaches.

This book reads like a personal anecdotal essay and not a professional scholarly piece of research. It's terrible in that respect but for theory it's not too bad. Be very careful because the author really just gives his unsubstantiated opinions on why the world is going to hell. As a professional and with 40+ years experience I expected way more. It's as bad as the "kids who play violent video games are more violent and that's why the world is so violent argument" which any academic or laymen with a mouse knows holds no real empirical evidence and is just a huge ball of yarn with loose tying threads of shallow correlations and hypothesis made to look solid.

The author is a primitivist with an all too transparent distain of the modern world and society. It has clearly corrupted his judgment. He all too often jumbles up the definitions of sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, antisocial behaviour, and narcissm making the terms appear as one when the truth is that all of those are quite different with different diagnosing criteria. Only once does he provide a trimmed down version of Antisocial Personality Disorder from the DSM-IV but mentions all of the other disorders with no clear line of distinction between them. What's more of a scientific crime is how he would often refer to certain subjects, people, and entire groups as antisocial from a simple description you would get from a simple news clip. His book would lead one to believe that sociopaths are an epidemic and will soon outnumber the "well mannered" population. After reading several books and articles on psychopathy, ASPD, and sociopathy (all related but not the same as he suggest or fails to mention) it was really hard getting through this one. I would suggest books from Robert Hare for a real objective and empirical look at these disorders.

This was a very helpful book in getting an overall perspective on antisocial behavior. Though it came off a bit caustic at times - and also seemed to overly generalize to the exclusion of specifics - Wolman's book is an easy, accessible, and informative read for anyone curious about sociopathic/psychopathic behavior, its origins, and its implications for "society" at large.