Title: Cross Disciplinary Thinking about 'Antisocial Personality Disorder'.
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: This seminar series is designed to promote thought and provide new perspectives on the difficulties posed by people who have major problems in their lives and their relationships - who are sometimes given the diagnosis of 'personality disorder'. At their most extreme these difficulties involve high levels of criminal offending and violence. For over 200 hundred years efforts have been made to diagnose these individuals as though they suffer from a mental disorder. Various labels have been used to describe this disorder - for example 'moral insanity', 'sociopathy', 'psychopathy' and personality disorder; with most concern in recent years being addressed to those said to suffer from 'Antisocial Personality Disorder' (ASPD). This issue began to receive a great deal of Government attention in the late 1990s, when the then Labour Government became very concerned by the case of Michael Stone who was convicted of the murder of Lin and Megan Russell in 1997. Stone's psychiatrists had recommended his discharge from a psychiatric hospital some 18 months before the murders because, although they viewed him as disturbed and dangerous, they felt that he suffered from 'ASPD' which they believed could not be treated in hospital. The Government proposed a series of initiatives that were aimed at encouraging the NHS to engage with and treat problems that were attracting the label of 'personality disorder'. They also initiated a well funded programme called the 'Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Programme' that aimed to treat serious offenders who were seen as suffering from this disorder. Research has suggested that these programmes have not been very successful. Nevertheless further initiatives have been planned. We believe that although there is benefit in understanding the psychology of such individuals there is a danger of too narrow a focus on the individual nature of these difficulties and of too little attention being paid to the social and cultural contexts that produce and sustain these problems This seminar series will bring together perspectives from a range of academic disciplines along with professionals representing different aspects of the health and welfare services, and with service users who had direct experience of living with these difficulties. The first year will start with an event that focuses on historical perspectives. This is important as although the diagnosis has a substantial history going back at least 200 hundred years; that history is not always well understood and there is a danger that the lessons of that history are not utilized. We will also hold a seminar that looks at what can be learned from people's own experiences of having the diagnosis themselves and from those who work directly with people who have had that diagnosis. Another seminar will examine philosophical perspectives on the nature of these difficulties. Such diagnoses have consistently been subject to legal controversy as they raise questions as to the nature of individual responsibility. The central event of the second year will be one that examines the impact and implications of the way that these kind of problems have been represented in different kinds of media (from film, art, fiction to the news media). We suggest that media representations have been an important factor in constructing our understanding of these problems We will also look at how useful concepts of 'personality disorder' are within the highly charged public debates about, on the one hand, the world of those who are dependent upon long term on benefits and on the other in the world of corporate greed. Cross disciplinary ideas from the first two years will flow into the events of the final year that will be used to understand and point towards solutions to specific difficulties such as the rather different relationships that men and women have towards violence and the specific issues of 'hate crimes and terror' and 'school shootings'.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH