Chapter 11 Psychological Disorders 395developed one of the most successful treatments
for it. In this view, a child is born with a genetic
vulnerability that produces abnormalities in the
frontal lobes and parts of the brain involved in
emotion, along with a disposition toward negative
emotionality as a personality trait (see Chapter 2).
As a result, the child behaves impulsively and has
heightened emotional sensitivity, which in turn
is worsened by what Linehan calls an “invalidat-
ing environment”: The child’s parents do not
acknowledge or tolerate the child’s emotions and
their expression, telling the child that those feel-
ings are unjustified and that the child should cope
with them alone. At the same time, the parents
intermittently reinforce the child’s extreme emo-
tional outbursts with their attention. As a result
of getting these mixed messages, the child never
learns to understand and label what he or she is
feeling, or how to regulate those feelings calmly.
Instead, the child veers helplessly between trying
to inhibit any sign of emotion and giving in to
extreme expressions of it (Crowell, Beauchaine, &
Linehan, 2009).
Watch the Video Speaking Out: Liz: Borderline
Personality disorder at MyPsychLabAntisocial Personality Disorder
LO 11.12, LO 11.13
Decades ago, Hervey Cleckley (1976) popular-
ized the term psychopathy, which he used to
describe individuals who are heartless, utterly
lack conscience, and are unable to feel normal
emotions. Psychopaths are incapable not only of
remorse but also of fear of punishment and of
shame, guilt, and empathy for those they hurt.
Most psychopaths are not delusional or out of
touch with reality. Nor are they unaware of the
consequences of their actions; they just don’t care
about those consequences. If caught in a lie or a
crime, psychopaths may seem sincerely sorry and
promise to make amends, but it is all an act. Some
psychopaths are violent and sadistic, able to kill a
pet, a child, or a random adult without a twinge of
regret, but many have no criminal records or his-
tory of violence. Instead, they are charming and
manipulative, able to direct their energies into
con games or career advancement, abusing other
people emotionally or economically rather than
physically (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009;
Poythress et al., 2010; Skeem et al., 2011). A lead-
ing researcher in this field, Robert Hare, calls
corporate psychopaths “snakes in suits” (Babiak &
Hare, 2007).
Although psychopaths are probably more
prevalent in individualistic Western societies, they
are believed to exist in all cultures and throughoutpsychopathy (sy-KOP-
uh-thee) A personality
disorder (not in the DSM)
characterized by fearless-
ness; lack of empathy,
guilt, and remorse;
the use of deceit; and
coldheartedness. In the
DSM, it is one symptom
of antisocial personality
disorder.You are about to learn...
• the complex symptoms of borderline personality
disorder.
• about psychopathy and other forms of antisocial
personality disorder.
• why some people are incapable of feeling guilt
or pangs of conscience.
personality Disorders
Personality disorders involve impairments in per-
sonality that cause great distress to an individual
or impair his or her ability to get along with oth-
ers, and the presence of pathological traits such as
excessive hostility or self-absorption.
Borderline Personality Disorder
LO 11.11
Borderline personality disorder characterizes people
who have the personality trait of extremely nega-
tive emotionality and who are unable to regulate
their emotions. They have a history of intense
but unstable relationships in which they alternate
between idealizing the partner and then devalu-
ing the partner. They frantically try to avoid real
or imagined abandonment by others, even if the
“abandonment” is only a friend’s brief vacation.
They are self-destructive and impulsive, suffer
chronic feelings of emptiness, and often threaten
to commit suicide, which about 10 percent of
them do. They are emotionally volatile, careen-
ing from anger to euphoria to anxiety (Crowell,
Beauchaine, & Linehan, 2009). They love and
hate intensely, sometimes simultaneously. (The
term borderline comes from the original psycho-
dynamic view of the disorder, as one falling on the
border between mild and severe mental illnesses,
thereby creating an inconsistent ability to func-
tion in the world.)
Many people with borderline disorder delib-
erately injure themselves in repeated acts of cut-
ting and self-mutilation. This form of “nonsuicidal
self-injury” has been known for thousands of years
and is found around the world; it is most prevalent
among adolescents and young adults. Self-injury
has two functions: It reduces stress and arousal
within the individual, and it often produces social
support or relieves the person of unwanted social
obligations (Nock, 2010).
Although there has not been much empiri-
cal research on the development of borderline
personality disorder, a leading theory is based on
a “biosocial” model proposed by Marsha Linehan,
who suffers from the disorder herself and has
borderline personal-
ity disorder A disorder
characterized by extreme
negative emotionality and
an inability to regulate
emotions; it often results
in intense but unstable
relationships, impulsive-
ness, self-mutilating
behavior, feelings of
emptiness, and a fear of
abandonment by others.