Psychopathy, Asperger's: a 'serious' combination

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So what are the good combinations with psychopathy? A love of dungeons?

I think that the personality disorder I'd question as a possibility ever would be histrionic PD, and that doesn't mean it's impossible, just that the traits seem so in conflict with autistic traits that it seems unlikely. The one study I've read found a few autistic people with ASPD, but found zero autistic people with HPD.

A loner is someone who has no desire to be with people, not someone who wants to be with people, tries and fails. Dahmer was not a true loner.

A person can be a loner at one period of their life and not a loner at another period. It's not like it's a thing that has to be fixed for life to be real.

But even if he was a loner it wouldn't mean anything about autism. It could just mean he was so creepy he knew nobody would share his disgusting interests.

True, someone can go through phases.
I felt compelled to point out the error in labeling Dahmer a loner when the evidence points to the fact he wanted to go out, be social and be with people. He's not the mysterious boogeyman the media and certain experts potray him to be.
As to him having autism, how can someone make a diagnosis who has never even talked to the guy? I agree with posters who think it ludicrous to diagnose someone with anything based on hearsay and stuff they read in the media. That's total lack of professionalism.

Well officially I am just an aspie and I agree whole-heartedly with that diagnosis, but I've thought for years that I'm a psychopath as well. Just saying.

It's funny how the DSM works.

This is the type of arbitrary distinction I'm talking about. Say that the criteria for, say, BPD includes ruling out autism (I don't think this is actually the case, but there are many instances of this type of distinction throughout the DSM). Not only is this distinction arbitrary (who says an autistic person can't also have BPD?) it sets up a false dichotomy that gives the superficial impression that these diagnoses are in diametric opposition, despite the fact that, upon consideration of their general attributes, the kinship between them should be fairly obvious. This is not to say that all persons with BPD should be called "autistic"--only that they're at a sufficient distance from normality and towards autism.

Also, I think there's a tendency (especially among members of sites like this) to define Asperger's in terms of what I've previously referred to as the "rose-colored archetype" of Asperger's: a logical introvert with poor social skills who wouldn't/couldn't hurt a fly, full of empathy that NT's can't understand, etc. I can understand why such an archetype might persist in a place like this, but anyone with real-life/clinical experience with the conditions in question knows that it's largely illusory.

Maybe psychopathy doesn't always have be a negative thing. There's a skill set there that needn't necessarily be used for ill. Or am i wrong?

That doesn't mean Dahmer had an ASD. Maybe he had a personality disorder? This is another example of a "false dichotomy." As if having a personality disorder rules out any possibility of having an ASD...
Dahmer had been to a probation officer. According to the media, she noted that he was depressed, so that's all he's been diagnosed with and it was a probation officer who made the observation. Does it mean he was clinically depressed? Could have been.
He was never evaluated by a psychiatrist prior to his arrest (to my knowledge.) It's strange that doctors will posthumously diagnose someone who no one felt needed to see a psychiatrist or other specialist prior to his arrest.
Maybe the conclusion is, Dahmer appeared more normal than people want to believe.
As for the special interest "bone collecting," Dahmer's father was a Chemist with a Phd, which could explain the special interest. He might have encouraged Dahmer, in his youth, to examine the inside of animals, dissecting them, like students do in Biology and Anatomy classes. This could explain why Dahmer did this sort of thing in his childhood. He was trying to please his father who could of been hopeful his son would have a career in a scientific field, following in his footsteps.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 12 Mar 2011, 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I wasn't talking about Dahmer at all, just making a few general observations.

It is my theory that people will take these famous serial killers and make them into freakish monsters just to create distance between themselves and killers. They don't want to face the fact that anybody could become a killer. They want to say "it's people with autism," or "it's people with schizophrenia." Or, they want to say it's the loners. Or they want to profile and say they have certain traits or did certain things.
In pointing fingers at others, they feel comfortable. They think they could never do that, because only those people do it.

Or is it simply that our notion of "freakish monsters" needs revising? Should we simply strive to be more in tune with the ways in which the human mind can "go wrong"?

For every serial killer there's at least one person with a spouse or fiancee who gets stressed out and simply flips and kills someone. These are people who were perfectly fine before they flipped, they had friends, had a good job or was a good student. People who knew them liked them. They tend to feel sympathy after they flip and feel sorry for them.
So you see, anyone can become violent. It's what people don't wish to acknowledge, so they push the idea away. Admitting this is the first step in being in tune with the many ways a mind can "go wrong."

I agree. The urge is to create a myth/lesson where the species and society are insulated from review. It's the other, again. And next week another other will go off. Where are all these others coming from? It's a mystery not worth looking into. They won't like the answers and they know it.

My ex is a person who is hard to label but who may come across as a bit aspie at times.What makes him stand out and not have anything in common with me or my aspie friends is that there is something else that that we dont relate to, like the manipulation, the strange intentions, the very calculated moves.I wouldnt be able to outsmart him ( so to speak) on any of those things because I wouldnt know how to construct it in my mind, neither would I have any desire to do so.
There is this strange difference there that is hard to pinpoint and makes him come across more like a psychopath somehow.

If a person's reaction to getting "stressed out" is to kill someone, there's more wrong in their cranium than can be accounted for by immediate environment/stimulus alone.