Question

Diagnosing Disorders STEP 1: Respond to the following prompt in a post between 200 and 400 words: Pick one of the mental disorders you learned about in this module. Think of a fictional character who you think might fit, at least to some extent, that type of disorder. Consider cartoon characters, Disney princesses, favorite sitcom characters, etc. Do some more research on the disorder to write up a diagnosis. Explain which disorder the character may have, describe the disorder, then provide at least three evidences or examples of how or why that character meets the description of the mental illness STEP 2 Comment on at least TWO classmates' posts in a response of 75 words or more. STEP 1: Respond to the following prompt in a post between 200 and 400 words: Pick one of the mental disorders you learned about in this module. Think of a fictional character who you think might fit, at least to some extent, that type of disorder. Consider cartoon characters, Disney princesses, favorite sitcom characters, etc. Do some more research on the disorder to write up a diagnosis. Explain which disorder the character may have, describe the disorder, then provide at least three evidences or examples of how or why that character meets the description of the mental illness.

Answer 1

Disorder: Antisocial Personality Disorder (also known as ASPD)

Brief description of ASPD: It is ingrained by a broad range of symptoms; Single most revealing trait is the lack of guilt or remorse. These broad ranges of symptoms are allocated to 6 domains (Arrigo & Shipley, 2001; Berrios, 1996)

#	Domains	Traits
1	Behavioral Organization	Lack of perseverance Unreliable Reckless Restless Disruptive Aggressive
2	Emotionality	Lack of anxiety Lack of remorse Lack of emotional depth Lack of emotional stability
3	Interpersonal Attachment	Detached Lack of commitment Lack of empathy
4	Interpersonal Dominance	Arrogant Deceitful Manipulative Insincere Disingenuous
5	Cognitive State	Suspicious Inflexible Intolerant Lack of concentration
6	Self	Self-centred Self-aggrandizement Self-Justification A sense of entitlement Uniqueness Invulnerability

Character: The Joker, (The Dark Night)

The joker is a character played by Heath Ledger in the movie ‘The Dark Knight’.  I have taken this character as an example and diagnosed him having ASPD. The majority of the domains and traits are a match to his behavior portrayed overall in the movie.

One behavior of the joker per domain is explained below:

1. Behaviour Organization: When the Joker meets the mafias of Gotham city, giving them assurance of safeguarding their money in return of a 50% cut, he later burns the entire cash in front of them at a later stage in the movie, thus exhibiting the trait of being unreliable.
   
   
2. Emotionality: One of the main traits of ASPD is lack of remorse, which is exhibited by the joker at many scenes in the movie, out of which, one scene is where he blows up a hospital, and another when he kills one of his gunmen at the beginning of the movie who was assisting him in the bank robbery.

3. Interpersonal Attachment: The joker’s lack of empathy was shown where he made Batman choose between Harvey Dent and Rachel. This image shows Rachel and Harvey kept hostages at different places. Rachel dies in the blast.

4. Interpersonal Dominance: The Joker makes a manipulative move on the mafias of Gotham city to turn their money into safekeeping. When the protested against the joker, he was wearing a bomb jacket as a threat for them to succumb to his demand.

5. Cognitive State: He was again, intolerant when the mafias denied at the first instance to keep their money in joker’s hands, hence the above bomb threat.
6. Self: he was definitely self-aggrandized. He exhibited many such traits in the same scene of the meeting the mafias of Gotham. He subtly, with a threat, demonstrated his power and authority to the mafias present in the meeting.