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Friday, October 14, 2011

Spaths

Certainly it's tempting - but much of what we understand about PA seems to confirm that "severe" PA manifests with some degree of psychosis or mental illness.  That was the thrust of Dr. Craig Childress's PAAO Webinar on Aug 28 entitled "Working Effectively with the Mental Health Profession”.  The Webinar was well received with about 50 paid attendees and a core message was that traditional "voluntary" approaches to treatment are not useful when dealing with a personality disordered individual.  This demands a different method and Dr. Childress decribed his evaluation framework - including what he calls "Pathogenic Parenting" which evaluates "normal-range" parental conflict and what is overtly negative and damaging parental influence to a child.  Dr. Childress plans to hold more webinars in the next few months.

Coincidentally the September cover issue of Readers Digest was entitled "Are you a Psychopath?"  and it highlighted Canadian Psychologist  Dr. Robert HARE of UBC and his world-recognized Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R).  The core of this checklist are 10 characteristics that are markers of psychopathy.   Dr. Hare is also part of a support group for victims of psychopaths called Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy and a prominent FAQ is entitled "Is it sociopathy or psychopathy?".  Again - it may not be a surprise to learn that Dr. HARE and his supporters are hoping to expand the current definitions of ASPD (Anti-Social Personality Disorder) within DSM-V.

Stay tuned.

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