Verbal Abuse Personality Disorder

22 being mentally ill. Later, in 1959, the UK Mental Health Act acknowledged antisocial personality disorder so that the patients with this personality disorder are possible to get admission for hospital treatment Duggan et al, 2008: 14. A person is diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder if he or she shows the same characteristics. The characteristics of antisocial personality disorder are used to diagnose individual with antisocial personality disorder. Usually, people get diagnosed of certain illness if they show the symptoms. For example, a girl will be diagnosed as having fever if her body temperature is high. That kind of symptoms will not appear on people who have personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder is not diagnosed by analyzing the symptoms or doing a blood test. Instead, individual who is suspected of having antisocial personality disorder will be examined by using the characteristics of this disorder. DSM-IV AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, 2000: 649-650 has seven criteria that characterize antisocial personality disorder. A person has to be indicated by three or more of the characteristics. The characteristics of antisocial personality disorder are:

1. Failure to Conform Social Norms

People with antisocial personality disorder tend to fail in conform social norms American Psychiatric Association, 2000: 649. Living in society makes humans have to obey the law. Law is needed so the society will live in peace. However, people with antisocial personality disorder do not have that kind of understanding. They show no respect to law and often perform acts of law breaking 23 so they can be arrested. These acts are repeated often. That is the reason why people with antisocial personality disorder usually have criminal records Duggan, et al, 2008: 17

2. Deceitfulness

Deceiving other people or constantly lying is another characteristic of people with antisocial personality disorder American Psychiatric Association, 2000: 650. The individual with personality disorder likes to do repeated lying, use of alias, and also conning others. They like to manipulate people around them as long as they can get the benefits for themselves.

3. Impulsivity

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder tend to be impulsive and failed to plan ahead American Psychiatric Association, 2000: 650. Being impulsive means the individual does not think further before putting an act to everything. It causes the person to fail in planning ahead. The failure can lead to bad situation that harms the individual or even other people. For this reason, individual with antisocial personality disorder may be dangerous.

4. Irritability and Aggressiveness

People who have antisocial personality disorder usually get irritated easily and aggressive. Since they get irritated easily, people with antisocial personality disorder