The expert explained which personality disorders are more common in women

“Psychopaths are a bad word, and psychopaths are no better.”

According to a publication published in Medical Xpress, the actual number of women with psychopathy may be five times higher than previously thought. If until recently this pathology was considered mainly male, and for every 6 men with it there was only 1 woman, today the ratio is 1: 1.2. Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Pathology of the RUDN University Yuri Sivolap told MK about what psychopathy is and how often it occurs among representatives of the fair half of humanity.

According to Dr. Clive Boddia from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), cited by the publication, the number of female psychopaths is greatly underestimated. According to the expert, this is due to the fact that few people can suspect them of having psychiatric problems: according to the expert, they make a good impression on others, but at the same time masterfully manipulate them, using deception and sexual seduction to achieve their goals. At the same time, violence and aggression are not their strong point. Another reason for the “underreporting” is that most often it is men with this diagnosis who come to the attention of specialists due to the commission of certain crimes. Women, on the other hand, commit crimes to achieve their goals much less often.

– The fact is that today they try not to mention psychopathy and psychopaths in world psychiatry – these are stigmatizing terms that offend people. Therefore, now they are more likely to talk about personality disorders. Some of these disorders are more common in women, some in men, and there are others that are approximately equally common, says Professor Sivolap.

– And yet you can still sometimes hear about women who are psychopaths…

– When men say that women are psychopaths, this may reflect some of their internal problems. No normal man would ever speak derogatorily about women. One of the current trends in world psychiatry is that personality disorders are increasingly leaving this area of ​​medicine, since this is not a fully mental disorder. It is rather a psychological problem that reflects a certain personality type. Although such people often suffer themselves, and it can be difficult for those around them. There are psychiatrists who agree to help people with personality disorders, and there are those who believe that it is more of character and destiny than a medical problem. Why else do many psychiatrists avoid dealing with patients with personality disorders? These people are often inconvenient. Once within the walls of a psychiatric clinic, they begin to defend their rights, undermine the established order – convenient for the staff, but not taking into account the interests of the patients – and thereby create problems for the hospital administration. I can give an example where, with some assumptions, one can find a personality disorder – this is Jack Nicholson’s character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, from the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

– But are there any medical methods to help such people?

– Yes, for certain forms of personality disorders there are possible correction methods, and if a patient asks for help, he cannot be refused. Women, like men, can have different manifestations of personality disorders. Some do not involve treatment with pills, and some have indications for drug therapy. For example, borderline personality disorder in some cases responds to mood stabilizers and antipsychotics. And for some types of disorders, psychotherapy helps. Among others, there are antisocial personality disorders – often such people become criminals.

– What disorders are more common in women, and which ones are more common in men?

– Women used to often be diagnosed with a personality disorder such as hysteria – but this diagnosis has also disappeared from the lexicon of psychiatrists; the term “dissociative identity disorder” is now used. Hysteria was considered a female disorder, but modern research shows that dissociative symptoms occur in women and men with approximately equal frequency. It is generally accepted that narcissistic personality disorder is more common in women, but recent research suggests that it is still more common in men. Well, abusers, verbal rapists who can make a partner’s life unbearable are most often men. Paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders are characterized by some predominance among men, and if we take antisocial disorder, then there is only one woman for every six men.

A bad word is “psychopaths”. And “psychopaths” are no better.

As for “Old Psychopaths”, this is when they were written by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov…