Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is characterised by the way a person thinks and perceives situations that are much different from normal people. People who have this disorder have no regard for right or wrong, often manipulating and antagonizing people around them. Unfortunately, ASPD does not discriminate either, and famous people with antisocial personality disorder are affected the same way as anybody else.

What Is Antisocial Personality Disorder?

Antisocial personality disorder is what mental health experts define as part of the Cluster B group, meaning it's one of the emotional, dramatic, and erratic types of personality disorders. People who have the condition share broad characteristics such as borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and histrionic personality disorder, and the condition usually begins in childhood with hostile and deceitful behavior.

These children may engage in bullying and intimidation of others as well as the tormenting and torturing of animals. Additionally, they may vandalize, set fires, or steal the property of others. This kind of antisocial behavior in children is called a conduct disorder. Adults with antisocial personality disorders may exhibit a complete lack of remorse for their actions, including criminal behaviors. These same people are also very good at feigning remorse if they think it will benefit them.

Why It Happens

While the experts don't know the exact causes of the condition, most research suggest both biological and environmental factors contribute to its development. Other risk factors include a cruelty to animals as a child, physical and sexual child abuse, parents who have a history of the disorder, gross neglect by an alcoholic parent, or a mother who smoked during pregnancy.

Famous People with Antisocial Personality Disorder

Famous people with ASPD can be charming, witty, and fun to be around, but they also exploit others in inappropriate ways. People with antisocial personality disorders act unsafely, destructively, and rashly without any guilty feelings when their behavior hurts other people.

1. David Garry 

David Garry was a famous criminal from Australiawho was also known as Garry Webb.He has spent almost all of his life in institutions since early adolescence. He has self-mutilated himself more than 70 times, including slicing off his nipples, swallowing razor blades, nailing his feet to the floor, and mutilating his penis. Sentenced to 14 years in prisonfor attempted murder of three people, he expressed no remorse for the crimes and was diagnosed as suffering from borderline ASPD.

2. Kenneth Lee Lay

Antisocial personality disorder is not always limited to killers. Of the famous people with antisocial personality disorder, the famous CEO of now bankrupt Enron was named the highest paid CEO in America in 1999. However, when the company began to decline, he used his authority to convince employees to invest their own money in company stock with the promise of dividends when the company rebounded. Meanwhile he began to liquidate his own stock knowing that the company was bankrupt. His callous disregard for his former employees' financial ruin and lack of remorse are a classic sign of ASPD.

3. Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the "Milwaukee Cannibal", was a serial killer that terrorized Milwaukee, Wisconsin for several years from the eighties and nineties, earning the reputation as one of the most infamous killers in American history. His crimes shocked and sickened people, because of the brutal and perverse nature of his sexual murders.As a child, Dahmer felt neglected by his family and did not fit in well with his peers,was also fascinated by dead animals, fire setting, pathological lying, chronic daydreaming, and violent fantasy. He is credited with killing more than 15 young boys, and showed no remorse for his crimes.

4. Charles Manson

Charles Manson is a musician who is cited as a person showing many signs of ASPD. Manson created a cult comprising young and easily influenced women in his group. After gaining their trust, he would then begin to brainwash them to carry out his crimes. As his ego grew, so did the seriousness of his crimes, ultimately ending in a bloody murder spree that killed many people, including Sharon Tate who was pregnant at the time. He showed absolutely no remorse for his crimes and vowed that if he were ever released he would continue his murderous rampage.

5. Tommy Lynn Sells

Famously known as the "Coast to Coast Killer," Tommy Lynn Sells claims to have killed more than 20 to 50 people as he traveled across the country. Mostly abandoned by his mother, he was raised until the age of 13 by his great-aunt. He spent some time living with a man from a nearby town that sexily molested him before he eventually left home and traveled as a transient. Sells killed his first victim at the age of 15 in Mississippi, and before he was caught, he had already been linked to as many as 20 murders.

6. Joey Barton

As one of the famous people with antisocial personality disorder, Joey Barton is a well-known soccer player from Manchester City, England. He is suspected of having ASPD due in part to his rash and destructive behaviour. His criminal activity includes poking a cigar into the eye of a teammate after he was provoked. His rash behaviour includes a decision in January 2006 to request a transfer earning him much criticism from the club's fans. Barton does not take any personal responsibility or show any remorse for his actions, either on or off the field.

Movies Featuring Characters with Antisocial Personality Disorder

According to mental health experts,ASPD is frequently a displayed condition in Hollywood. About 23% of award winning movies featured people with antisocial personality disorder such as:

•    Marlon Brando in the 1972 movie, "The Godfather"
•    Robert De Niro in the 1974 movie, "The Godfather Part II"
•    Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie, "Wall Street"
•    Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 movie, "Silence of the Lambs"
•    Forest Whitaker in the 2006 movie, "The Last King of Scotland"
•    Daniel Day-Lewis in the 2007 movie, "There Will Be Blood"
•    Clint Eastwood in the 1992 movie, "Unforgiven"
•    Javier Bardem in the 2007 movie, "No Country for Old Men"
•    Malcolm McDowell in the 1971 movie,"A Clockwork Orange"

Can Antisocial Personality Disorder Be Treated?

Mental health experts agree that more research is needed on ASPD. However, there are some areas that can be of some help to those afflicted.

• Some medications that have been shown to reduce aggressive tendencies may also be helping the aggression in ASPD patients. Medication such as atypical antipsychotics that target irritability and mood could be beneficial to individuals with ASPD.
• Other studies suggest that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy might also be beneficial to those people that have a milder form of ASPD.

Antisocial personality disorder describes a pattern of feelings and choices, so this doesn't mean that individuals with the ASPD are unable to chart their own paths through life. People with ASPD know what is going on around them, and they also know the difference between right and wrong. They should be held accountable for their actions, even at a young age. They need to be shown that actions have consequences.