Bad boys, bad men: confronting antisocial personality disorder. By Donald W. Black. Oxford University Press, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. 1999, 240 pp. ISBN 0-19-512113-9
✍ Scribed by Dana Ferraro
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 44 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0957-9664
- DOI
- 10.1002/cbm.406
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This book provides an excellent overview of many of the current issues around antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) facing the mental health clinical and research communities. The chapters cover past and current theories of behaviour, symptomatology, difficulties with diagnoses, treatment methods and the aetiology of the condition, although some topics receive rather short shrift. Newer areas for research, like hormonal effects, neurotransmitters, effects of diet and past abuse are briefly summarised but not in enough detail to satisfy the reader with specialist knowledge.
Most sections are punctuated by case histories of subjects in Professor Black's research study. The research team studied the records of ASPD men treated at a local hospital prior to 1970 and they attempted to trace the original subjects for follow-up interviews 30 years later. In the Acknowledgment Section, the author notes that he wrote this book because of the rejection by peer-reviewed journals of his case history-style approach to research. It appears that he has used that same style for this book, which can be slightly jarring at times. A chapter dedicated to the Black et al research project would have been very useful, particularly as it seems not to have been published elsewhere. There is no information here at all about the number of subjects who were successfully traced, nor is there any aggregate data on the subjects' present life situation or their psychiatric/criminal histories (even if only selfreported) since the time of their admission.
One chapter in particular, 'The Antisocial Murderer', seems out of place in a book with more academic aspirations, and may have been included to appeal to a wider American audience. The main focus is on serial killer John Wayne Gacy who had been in the original subject cohort. Gacy refused to participate in the follow-up study, being on death row at the time, but the results of his original assessment at the hospital are given in some detail. These investigations are interesting because it was the last time Gacy would receive psychiatric attention before his arrest for multiple murder.
The last chapter, on ASPD and families, is the only time I have ever seen information directly targeted at people with the condition and their families, which might indicate a lack of familiarity on my part with family therapy.
S10
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