Donald Black, author of the book "Bad Boys, Bad Men:Confronting Antisocial Personality Disorder"

March 25, 1999

Borders.com presents NetCafeLive with author Donald Black discussing health issues concerning antisocial personality disorder, mental disorder, and behavioral problems.

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LilyCCC: Welcome to NetCafeLive where we host authors and celebrities throughout the month. Thanks for joining us! Borders NetCafeLive is a joint production of Borders.com(tm) & Talk City(tm), a Talk City, Inc. Production. Tonight's guest is Donald Black. He is here to talk about his book, "Bad Boys, Bad Men: Confronting Antisocial Personality Disorder" which examines antisocial personality disorder (ASP) and draws on case studies, scientific data, and current events to explore antisocial behavior. Welcome to Talkcity, Donald!

Donald Black: Thank you for having me, I'm delighted to be here!

LilyCCC: Donald , it's great to have here. Can you start off by telling us about your background and what inspired you to write "Bad Boys-Bad Men?"

Donald Black: I'm a psychiatrist. I work with a variety of patients, and I found early in my career that I was very frustrated working with anti-social men and didn't know what to do for them. I couldn't understand why they behaved why they did - that is, getting into trouble constantly and not seeming to learn from their experiences. That led me to conduct research to explore how they do over their lifetime. And in the process I collected so much interesting data that I thought to write a book to the public and do so in an interesting and entertaining way. That's what lead me to write "Bad Boys, Bad Men."

LilyCCC: Donald, there is a lot of talk about personality disorders nowadays. Can you explain what a personality disorder is?

Donald Black: A personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which people have difficulty relating to others, forming attachments and conforming their behavior to expected norms. They're quite common. Psychiatrists deal with patients who have personality disorders all the time. They tend to be depressed often and have had very difficult lives. I think it's something the public is becoming more familiar with, but for the large part they've been ignored.

LilyCCC: People are most familiar with the term "borderline personality disorder." How does an "anti-social personality disorder" differ? What is it exactly?

Donald Black: Well, anti-social personality disorder is much different, although there are similar things in common. ASPD is a disorder characterized by serial misbehavior beginning very early in life, usually by age 5. So, it leads them to sociopathy, or for the individual, sociopath. The correct term and one that psychiatrists have used since 1968 is anti-social, but the public seemed unaware of this. I call my book, "Bad Boys-Bad Men" because this condition mainly affects men, and it begins early in life so that disturbed boys become dangerous men. Hence, the title of the book. Now, just mentioning some other aspects of this disorder - it's very common, perhaps affecting 2 1/2 percent of the population. Other symptoms include aggression, impulsivity, reckless behavior, failure to follow rules and regulations, and lack of remorse. These are the people who are committing the crimes and misdeeds of our society, and the ones who end up in our jails and prisons. I see them

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