DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part V II- Boarderline Personality Disorder - Final

In simple laymen’s terms I want to make a few points about borderline personality disorders. First, it is fairly common, affecting about 2% of adults. So in any given church of 400 people, there should be 8 people suffering from it.

Secondly, while the first two disorders I wrote about mostly affect men, BPD is mostly a disorder of young women. As I mentioned last time, if there is one simple root cause it is a deep insecurity and fear of abandonment.

The other point I want to make is that it is a recognized mental illness. This is where I think Evangelicals can be naive. In these lesser (as compared to schizophrenia or psychosis of any type) mental illnesses, it is easy to assume that these are just bad people (or in some cases they leave you feeling that you are the bad person). But, by recognizing it as a disorder, I think we are better equipped to cope and steer away from the complexities.

The best hallmark of dealing with someone with a BPD is that they have a rapid changing of opinions of others. They can easily start as the best friend you have ever known. They can be over the top with praises for you. They will bring you gifts, never forget your birthday and quickly consider you their BFF . . . forever until you disappoint them.

You can disappoint them for reasons that just don’t make sense to you. But remember, they have a very deep insecurity and fear of abandonment, and this is where this fear is manifest.

For example, you may simply go out of town to visit your mother. But when you return, your new BFF is very, very angry at you. But in the Christian context, and if the person has learned the game well, they know that the only “approved anger” is righteous anger. So for the Christian BPD person to express their anger, they have to “dress it up” as righteous anger.

“I’m so disappointed in you. We were working on this (church) project and I called your house and you are not even home. This is NOT the way that someone treats their sister in Christ! I wasted three days because of this. If I had been warned of your sudden disappearance, then I could have solicited someone else to help me. I just think that when you do God’s work you must be faithful. You know, once you put your hand to the plough, you never look back!”

Remember, in this situation you simply went to visit your mother for the weekend and it wasn’t really your friend’s business. But the BPD person will blow it hugely out of proportion. This is where it gets tough. As a sincere Christian, you can be overwhelmed with a false sense of guilt, like you had done something horrible . . . and that’s exactly what the BPD person wants you to feel. They are angry that you “abandoned them” and they want you to pay a hefty price for it.

The BPD person is known best by these “stormy” relationships. They are known second best by their impulsive actions, which seem outrageous.

The best example of this kind of behavior, which I can think of today, is a young lady in my mom’s church. I do think she has BPD plus a couple of other disorders (including a somatization disorder or what they use to call being a hypochondriac.)

This girl (about 28 years old and married) keeps herself at the center of attention of the church with fantastic prayer requests (and amazing miracles) to report. She gets very close to different women, usually using her imagined chronic illnesses to keep them close (fake pregnancies, fake cancer etc.). But she breaks up friendships very quickly and dramatically if someone crosses her or does not live up to her very high expectations (forgetting the anniversary of when she miscarried).

However, last year she was trying to become the official church pianist (vs an older woman who had been the pianist for years). One man, the head deacon (in his late 50s and married) would make the final decision. To make a long story short, she slept with the deacon to get the post and it was exposed (they were caught with their pants down—literally). This seemed to come completely out of the blue, but BPD people often do these outrageous acts (many times either sexual or going into debt).

But sincere women, who want to be their friends, often find their worlds turned upside down in these relationships

The good news, when compared to some of the other disorders, the BPD is treatable and there is hope of near complete recover . . . unless it is not understood.

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part VI - Borderline Personality Cont.

As I continue this journey, I must add again (as a disclaimer) that I am not an expert on mental illness and I welcome corrections in the comments section from anyone who is. I have only a BS degree in psychology (and I work in neurology), which does not make me an expert any more than having a BS degree in biology makes someone a surgeon. I do have to know something about these disorders in my line of work because I face them (in my patients) on a daily basis.

The borderline personality disorder (BPD) is very stealthy. Most lay people are not familiar with it as a mental illness. This is why these people can ruin your life. You get tangled in their webs without even realizing it.

The good news, is that borderline personalities, while a disorder of the personality part of the brain, is treatable (as contrasted with the psychopath or sociopath), but I doubt curable. I have no doubt that these people can be real Christians (thus redeemable). However, in most of these Axis II disorders, the patient is the last to know that they are mentally ill.

While for most of us, if an authority in the matter (our doctor, wife etc) tells us that we are depressed, anxious, we are usually open to considering it. However, if you tell a borderline personality patient that they have the illness, they will become enraged. That is why it is hard to treat because the sufferer has very little insight. Maybe when their social life is in a constant state of disarray, and they have attempted suicide, they might humbly seek help.

As I said before, like most other mental illnesses, BPD is probably a function of brain structure (via genetics) and early childhood experiences. One theory is that the brain disorder is in the limbic system, which is the master manager of emotions.

The life experiences that can bring the disorder to “bloom” are usually early childhood abandonment or abuse. Relating back to my previous premise (many posts ago) the fundamental problem with all of us, the thing that really drives all our actions, is the desire to have value. This is a value before other people and God. Of course, the reality of the matter is that God has solved that problem once for all in Christ. But none of us fully grasp that . . . especially those Christians who claim that they do.

This early childhood experience can be things like mom leaving you in the crib for hours while she watches soaps, or drinks martinis. It could be dad walking away when you were five, never to be seen again. Or it could be, and in my patients this is one of the most common reasons, is that daddy (or mom’s boyfriend) started molesting you sexually. The anchor in your life suddenly becomes the devil and you never, ever feel safe again.

The borderline patient, something like the psychopath and sociopaths, try to create worlds where they coerce others to love them and never abandon them. But unlike the psychopaths or sociopaths . . . they don’t cut you up in pieces and throw your remains in random dumpsters if you don’t. They make you feel like you want to cut your own wrist at times.

So I think the root to all mental illness is about the same, but with different manifestations. I know that I suffer from social anxiety. I can get up to speak to a large crowd and feel a panic attack coming on. The issue is the same. I have an irrational fear of rejection (my value being low) of the crowd if I say the wrong thing . . . or if I accidently pee in my pants (which I’ve of course never done but it is part of the irrationality of the fear).

I’m going to next get into the details of how BPD plays out in our local church settings. I may pull from a couple of my own experiences. I don’t like to use my own experiences because it starts to sound like, “poor me.” However, I know my own experiences best. I guess I could make up fictional stories..

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part IV - Borderline Personality Disorder

This posting will be simply an attempt to define this complex disorder. I will start with the official DSM criteria and then try to define it in more laymen's terms in the next post (including examples of how this can play out in relationships at church):

DSM criteria:

* Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

* A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

* Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

* Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)

* Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

* Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

* Chronic feelings of emptiness

* Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

* Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

Cause: Like most, serious, mental health issues, there appears to be a genetic predisposition (nature), that can be enhanced or "set off" of certain life experiences (nurture)such as abandonment or actual abuse as a child.

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part V Psychopathic/Sociopathic Personalities – The David Berkowitz Story

I feel like I should sew up a few loose ends from that last post before I try to move on to the more typical Axis II disorders that we might run into in a typical church setting (more typical than a psychopathic murderer).

Item 1; Truth, Why is it important?

One question that I alluded to, and picked up in the comments, is the whole idea of why is truth important. Once again, I’m not talking about the “truth” that I use to talk about, meaning religious dogma. When I was an Evangelical, theological truth was our driving force. We had to have all our theological “t”s crossed and our “i”s dotted. We knew exactly how the end times would come and even when. We knew what Revelations meant, which church was the right one and etc.

I’m talking about this point brought up that if, David Berkowitz is preaching Jesus, who cares if his testimony is true or not?

I think it comes back to the principle that if we are serving the true God, the creator of the universe, then we should be brokers of truth . . . because he is truth. This means raw truth at all levels. It means emotional, historical, political, personal and psychological truth . . . truth in every part of how we live.

Do we say that if someone is living a lie, but serving God in the meantime, then we should look the other way? Then it ends up being like Jack Peirce, our Sunday school director when I was a kid. He was a wonderful Christian man, hard church worker, beautiful voice and great choir leader. The fact that he was habitually sexually molesting young boys at my church (including my brother) was over-looked by those good Baptists because of his other attributes.

This is where I think that kind of reasoning gets us. If we ignore the lying TV evangelist under the auspice of “who am I to judge” then the face of God to the world (which doesn’t know him) becomes the face of a clown . . . if not worse . . . the face of a con man and fool. Is this approach of being tolerant of lies within the church, but intolerant of those (for whatever reason, gays, whores, democrats) outside the church doesn’t seem to be working for us. Christianity is on the decline in the West. It is still true that 80% of the young people raised in Evangelical churches, don’t stay involved in church of any kind once they are emancipated from their parents. I doubt if any of Jack’s victims considers themselves Christians today.


Item 2; Is redemption possible for the psychopaths?

Are these, Axis II (especially the socio and psychopaths) people redeemable? That may sound like a strange question and the knee-jerk response would be something like, “in Jesus all things are possible.”

But I will touch on a few possibilities.

A. These people are not redeemable. They were so touched by the Fall that the best they can do is play games with the little minds of the Christians but never accept Christ sincerely. At first glance, this might sound really strange and cruel. However, this is really what the Calvinists have taught for 500 years. Simply stated, that some people were born without any hope of redemption.

B. They are redeemable but must be contained . . . until they get a new body in the new earth. In this example, I would put them in the same category my friend L. who goes to my church. He is a paranoid schizophrenic (not an Axis II problem). I believe in all my heart that L. is a true Christian. But he must be “contained.” It takes a lot of care and a lot of medications to keep L. on track. He can only handle a little responsibility. So we love him . . . but we must contain him . . . until God gives him a new body in glory.

So, the way that this possibility applies to a psychopath murderer is that they would be redeemable but must be contained . . . probability in a prison cell for the rest of their lives . . . until they get their new bodies in glory. But given the chance to run free within a church, they will cause great mischief, and are truly dangerous.

C. (this is the one that most Evangelicals believe about David Berkowitz) These people are not only redeemable, but, in Christ, they are new creatures. The Holy Spirit has erased all the bad stuff and everything is brand spanking new. The born again pedophile can now be trusted with your kids while you are out of town on vacation . . . for a month.

Item 3;The True Fall

The last concept, which I think relates to this topic indirectly, is my premise that the dualist-Evangelicals don’t understand the depth of the Fall of Adam on the world. They talk about depravity of man . . . the rottenness of the world . . . but they really don’t grasp the depth of the evil.

The dualists, by definition, see every important thing as spiritual (and fluid). The physical is inconsequential. This is why they can see David, a man who stalked and viciously murdered six people, as easily fixable. His problem is purely spiritual. Actually, he had the worst kind of the spiritual fall . . . . DEMONS! That’s as bad as it gets for a dualist. But demons can be cast out and presto, the damage is gone.

But as a monist, believing that all of creation is very important and created by a good God—but fallen—I see the worst of the fall in the physical. Demons and witches (which Evangelicals love to talk about) are so insignificant (maybe immaterial would be a better term . . . pun intended) when compared to effects of the Fall within the physical realm. Demons scare the crap out of Evangelicals . . . yet the really dangerous things aren’t even on their maps.

For example, me personally, I would rather spend the night in a house with the girl from The Exorcist than with the guy from the Bates Hotel. The girl might scream, her head spin around, vomit on my carpet and masturbate with a crucifix . . . but the guy, might slip into my room while I’m sleeping, dissect me and eat me while I’m watching.

The former is the worst of the fall, the most evil of evil, in the eyes of the Evangelical who sees through dualistic eyes. The later is not supernatural in any way . . . but he’s a psychopath. Psychopaths, sociopaths, people with borderline or narcissistic personalities scare the shit out of me.

But that’s only touching the tip of the horrors of the fall in the physical realm. I will describe a few more of the horrors . . . worse than demons, Ouija Boards, animal sacrifices . . . which concern the dualist.

These are all real consequences of the fall in the physical world:

A loving mother of four little girls, at age 30, discovers a large lump in her breast. Those little girls, who adore their mother, watch her slowly become sicker and sicker, wasting away and dying. Then they stand alone, confused, on the grave side . . . mommy gone forever (as far as this earth is concerned). That’s horror, real horror.

A sixteen year old boy, full of life and hope, looses control of his car, strikes a tree and his head is caved in, leaving him as a baby, who never speaks or opens his eyes for the next thirty years. In the eyes of his parents, this is horror.

You are a 12 year old girl living in your village in Sudan where your family works 16 hours a day to scrape out enough food to survive on. One day a group of rebels come tearing into your village donning machetes. They chase down you father, in the cornfield. You watch as they cut off his arms, then his legs as he screams for mercy . . . then his head. Then they grab your mother. They hold her down while ten men rape her, then they gouge out her eyes and chop off her head. They slaughter you little brother right before your eyes. Then they grab you. One man after another rapes you . . . to the point you are left for dead. Eventually, after days, you have the strength to start walking and looking for help. After another two days on the dusty road, you find an army convoy and you feel safe. They give you some bread, some water to help you regain your strength . . . so they can start the raping all over again. Solider after solider, after solider rapes you until you are thrown in the weeds as trash . . . now HIV positive trash. From the eyes of this little girl . . . this is hat the fall looks like. She would trade that experience for a rendezvous with the Exorcist girl in a millisecond
.
The young woman finds her prince charming. They have a huge church wedding. All her little girl dreams are unfolding, just like a Cinderella story. Then, slowly and insidiously, her prince starts to beat the hell out of her. This is the fall in this woman’s eyes. All the dreams transfigured into an awful nightmare.

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part IV Psychopathic/Sociopathic Personalities – The David Berkowitz Story

Today’s posting is one which I will most likely live to regret. I just sense it. Someone will do a web search on “David Berkowitz” and find this one posting, taking it out of context of the hundred others, I’ve done. These people will see it as some type of declaration of war . . . which it is certainly not. I see the firestorm brewing on the horizon. And this topic isn’t really about David, it is about Axis II mental illness and how it fits or “misfits” within the Church.

I’m about to embark on the violation of a half dozen Christian mores. In the Evangelical world there are certain things you just never do. It is worse than tugging on Superman’s head or spitting into the wind (thanks Jim C.). It is more terrible than if I took up meth or being a “John” or maybe murdering someone myself.

The first Christian mos (singular for mores), which I’m about to violate, is that you never, ever question the testimony of a fellow believer. Second, you never doubt anything that is supernatural, especially if it is told within the confines of a church building, book, or religious TV. To doubt any supernatural event is to put yourself in opposition to God Almighty . . . over on the dark side with Vadar and the gang. On top of that, these violations will be magnified a thousand times because I will not only be questioning a supernatural testimony, but one that is very popular right now within the Evangelical sub-culture.

I will say at this point that while I will be raising some doubts about David Berkowitz’s sincerity, there is no way for me to know what is in David’s heart or soul. Only God knows (and I’m not even sure David knows). But in the same breath, those who know him personally and vouch for his true conversion (and I’ve corresponded with a couple) also do not know what lurks within any of us. The heart is truly more deceitful than all else and desperately sick (Jer 17:9). But the point of this posting, as it continues in this series, is not really about a particular, namely David, but about the concept in general. It is about the idea that psychopaths and sociopaths can enter the church, play the game, and cause great harm. My exaltation is that we, as Christians, should not be naive about this. The pastors that know and support David so much are not trained psychiatrists. I don’t think they understand the horrible depths of these most extreme examples of mental illness, the true hallmarks of the Fall of Adam on mankind.

I will spend so much time explaining myself in this posting that I won’t have the space or time to devote to the actual story about David. It doesn’t matter because I think everyone is familiar with the Son of Sam serial killings in New York City, back in the 70s. I encourage you to look it up if you don’t know the details. I will summarize the story here. The details at this point may not be precise as I’m sitting in a coffee shop and I’m not paying the 4 bucks to go on line to check historical facts . . . but you can (if you are home with free Internet).

I think the murders started happening in the summer of 75 (could have been a little later) and continued for about 13-14 months. David stalked and viciously killed six people, wounding several others, sending the entire city into a panic. Often his targets were young girls or couples making-out in parked cars. In one of his early interviews he described the pleasure he had in stabbing this young woman in the throat and head and watching her look at him as she slowly died. He said he had no desire to rob her, or even rape her, but to just enjoy the pleasure of watching her die.

The Son of Sam name came about as he had written a couple of rambling letters describing himself as the “Son of Sam.” Sam, it turns out, was his neighbor’s German shepherd. According to David, he believed that the dog was ordering him to do the killings. But that was David’s first story to the police.

He was arrested and convicted. I think he confessed to the six slayings (and I do believe he was in a corner with overwhelming evidence against him). Some, who were involved in the case, believed that his first stories (about the German shepherd ordering him to kill people) were his attempt to get off with an insanity plea. He was sentenced to over 300 years.

The next strange twist came in the early 90s (I think). He then told a story that the real reason that he killed those people was because he was involved in a satanic cult. It was a cult that not only worshipped Satan, but killed dogs around New York (and other animals) and of course people. In one version of the story, he said he had only actually killed three of the victims and the other members had killed the other people. He would not reveal the names of the other killers because he was afraid they would harm his family. But then other times he admitted to all of the killings. The stories about the satanic group were never substantiated.

It was around this time (and again I don’t have the details in front of me) that he started telling this fantastic (meaning this on two levels—wonderful and beyond belief) story of how another inmate started sharing Christ with him. This other inmate gave him a Gideon New Testament and he started reading it. Soon, he gave his life to Christ and is a totally new man.

His conversion came almost 15 years ago, but only seemed to hit the Christian media about 3-4 years ago. Since then, he has written a Christian best-seller “Son of Hope,” had at least one Christian documentary made about his life, a church play written and preformed about his life, many, many TV interviews (700 Club, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fl, Larry King etc.). He works in the chapel at the prison and has a letter writing “ministry.” He has been used as a poster boy for the Gideon Bible people (they have a tract written about David’s life) and Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship.

The reason that I will cast doubt on David is two-fold. One is theoretical (maybe even philosophical) and the other is personal. I will start with my personal story.

About three years ago, suddenly David Berkowitz’s name seemed to be popping up everywhere. The first time I heard it, our pastor shared the story of David’s conversion as an example of how God works miracles. He shared how David said the first time he ever saw a Bible, except for a Satanic Bible, was in prison. Our pastor testified to the power of the scriptures, that by reading Psalms for the first time in his life, he soon became a Christian. I approached the pastor after church and told him that I knew something about David that few people know . . . and based on what I know, that story doesn’t make sense. The pastor seemed taken back that I would question God’s work.

Within weeks, I was “thumbing through” TV channels, looking for something inspiring . . . like a Frontline on PBS . . . but I stumbled on the TV sewer the Daystar network. Immediately I heard the name “David Berkowitz.” I paused and listened. It was a Baptist pastor, Don Dickerman, describing his personal acquaintance with David (he is one of David’s mentors) and shared the same testimony as our pastor had. I will come back to this in a moment, but now I will tell the “rest of the story” regarding David.

I was involved in a Navigator training center in Lexington, Kentucky from 1977 through 1982. It was around 1979 that I roomed with another Nav guy, Don Vanderpleog in a large house off campus. Don had just moved up from Radcliff Kentucky, where he also had been involved with the Navigators. Another guy (forgot his name now, except his first name was John) moved up with Don and had been a Nav leader in Radcliff. John had just gotten married and was living in a different part of Lexington, going to school on the GI bill.

Both Don and John told me, in great detail, about David Berkowitz. You see, David was their roommate before they moved up to Lexington. Just like John, David was in the army at Fort Knox, Kentucky. John had “led David Berkowitz to the Lord” around . . . I don’t know, must have been very early 70s. John was also discipling David in the early 70s. They were in Bible study together and I think they went on evangelism together. David seemed normal . . . a little quiet and a loner (aren’t they all). He saw David freak out once when their neighbor was playing loud music late at night. That’s not that unusual as I know I’ve done the same.



John took David to the airport when he was discharged from the army. He clearly remembered David’s last words before he entered the jetway bridge, “I’m going to go and turn NYC upside down for Jesus!”

About two years later John tells me that he was sitting in front of the TV watching the CBS evening news and eating dinner with his wife, a nurse practitioner. The news anchor announced that an arrest had been made in the infamous Son of Sam serial killer case. That story had dominated the news for the entire year. Before they said a name, John recognized David Berkowitz on the footage of his arrest. John dropped his chicken leg in his lap stood up in disbelief and shouted, “That’s David Berkowitz.!”

Back to the story about Daystar. When I saw the program, once again describing David’s story with him being involved with Satanism, and then, seeing a Bible for the first time in prison, I felt like I had to do something.

I looked up Joni Lamb’s (the co-host and co-owner of Daystar) e-mail address and wrote about my personal story, which I just told. To my surprise she wrote back and we started a brief dialog. She forwarded my e-mail and concerns to Pastor Don Dickerman, who meets with David on a regular basis, and in some ways, functions as David’s publicity manager in the Christian world. I think that Don (Dickerson) is sincere and believes David’s story whole heartedly. He actually confronted David with my e-mail. David’s response to my concerns was, that it was true. However, he adds, the army years were such confusing times for him, that if he shared in his testimony that he had been a Christian once before (and BEFORE he did his heinous crimes) it would really confuse people, so he is going to stick with his original testimony, with the different details.

So the reasons that I have to doubt David (but again I’m not saying that it is impossible for David to have really become a Christian this time) are because of this personal story, which I just shared, plus a philosophical one.

The other reason is that psychopaths and sociopaths are masters at lying and manipulation. This IS WHAT THEY DO. The lay person just does not understand how these people can spin huge interwoven stories to create self-gratification. No, I don’t think David has a simplistic reason of pretending to be a Christian . . . just to get parole. Psychopaths are far more complex than that. They create entire worlds where they force other people to live in . . . worlds where they, themselves are king . . . and it is part of the game. Rather than being one of the most despised people on earth, David is now a Christian hero and celebrity. This is what I think motivates his deep psyche.

The other point I want to make, and I realize now that I will have to continue this discussion in another post because this one is getting too long, is that once a psychopath, always a psychopath. I’m sure this statement will really piss-off a lot of Christians. However, when you are naive, you think that such disturbed behavior was a simple choice of the flippant will. Come to Christ, and your heart changes and you are a new person . . . right?

I put the fall at a much deeper level. Psychopathic personalities (and many of the ones in the Axis II category) are much more like cerebral palsy (CP) or Down syndrome. I’m not saying that the Axis II are completely organic (nature) as nurture can have a role. Even the scientists don’t know all the factors yet.

While CP and Down syndrome can affect motor movements or intelligence respectively, Axis II traits affect things like judgment and the moral character of the persona. So, I’m not speaking in theological terms that God does not have the power to change the persona. I am speaking as an observer of reality. I’ve never seen a person with CP become a Christian and their motor defect goes away, either over night or over decades. The same with Down syndrome or any other brain defect.

I want to pick up at this point when I continue. Next time I will explain why I don’t think Evangelicals don’t appreciate the depths of the Fall of Adam. I will also discuss why I think this (these postings about Axis II) really matters.

My wife, as an Evangelical and who doesn’t see most things the way I do, is a good sounding board. She didn’t want me talking in public about David Berkowitz for the reasons I’ve mentioned. Plus, in her view, it doesn’t matter if David is sincere or not. Isn’t he doing God’s work, even if he is lying and stilly crazy after all of these years (thanks Paul)? I disagree and will explain why next. I will see if I get any hate mail.

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part III

I contemplated how to approach this topic. Certainly on a blog like this you can not do these topics justice. It would take a book . . . or two, and from someone who knows a heck more about it than me. I simply want to raise the issue about these kinds of mental disorders and how, I think, the Church has been naive about them.

I do think that the Church should be a place of grace, were all of us . . . broken failures, hurt and confused . . . can come and rest under the mercy of God, though his finished work of Christ. However, sometimes it can be place that attracts people with the Axis II disorders . . . where they can come and play out their manipulative ways among the most naive group they can find. In between the honest seekers and the deranged manipulative people are those with a sincere desire to know God and to be covered by the lamb’s blood . . . but do have significant Axis II issues. The question is what do they do with their mental health problems? Under intense pressure from the Evangelical church to be "mature Christians," they often dress their mental illness up as spiritual gifts and run with them . . . hurting a lot of people along the way. I’ve been both the perpetrator and the victim in these schemes.

I’ve decided to start with the most extreme cases and the move toward the more mundane, those that we see in our on families, our churches and possibly ourselves. So, I’ve picked the sociopathic and psychopathic disorders. I will end this posting with a good article that compares the two.

I picked this article below for two reasons. First, it deals with both disorders and contrasts them, one against the other, and Jeanne Kerns seems to know what she is talking about. Secondly it segues into my first case, David Berkowiwitz. He is the new darling of the Evangelical’s “On the Road to Damascus” conversions . . . the greatest since Mike Warneke, oh no, I mean . . . Larry Flynn, oh no . . . I mean Paul . . . yes St. Paul (his seemed to take). I will spend the next posting about David's story and I have some personal connection to it. But I think that Ms Kerns gets it right here. In my research about David, at the time of his arrest, he was described as a “paranoid schizophrenic.” I’ve known a lot of paranoid schizophrenics over the years, and none of them could have done what David did. I know a couple who have committed acts of violence. I have one patient who suffered a brain injury when a paranoid schizophrenic, homeless man, put a brick in his sock and swung it through the air, hitting my patient in the top of his head and fracturing his skull. But those are usually impulsive random acts of violence. I am not a psychologists or psychiatrist and I could be wrong. If one reads this and wants to correct me, they are welcome to. But I’ve never known of a p.s. who plotted complicated strategies for killing multiple people, one at a time. They might go bizerk and kill someone on an impulse.

But David Berkowiwitz was very methodical, planning, stalking and killing in cold blood . . . six innocent victims. In preparation for my next posting, I’ve watched about two hours of interviews with David. He does NOT strike me as a paranoid schizophrenic. But he does strike me, both by his history, and his persona as a psychopath.

Sociopath Vs. Psychopath: There is a Difference

By Jeanne Marie Kerns



When someone hears the words psychopath or sociopath they automatically start thinking of some awful, derange, serial killer. That might have been true years ago, however the difference in the two have finally been revealed. Before understanding the two personality disorders, you first must understand what exactly each disorder consists of.

A sociopath is one who is affected with a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior. A psychopath is a person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse. The two might sound the same to some, however the differences between sociopaths and psychopaths are very real.

David Lykken a behavioral geneticist for the University of Minnesota has come to an interesting conclusion regarding the differences between sociopaths and psychopaths. Lykken studies revealed that psychopaths are born with temperamental differences that lead them to being risk seekers, impulsive, fearless as well as not being able to socialize normally. Sociopaths have normal temperaments, and their personality disorder tends to effect their lives regarding parenting, peers, and their intelligence.

Sociopaths can be anyone from your mother, father, best friend, neighbor or even your co-worker, and you would not even realize that they are dealing with this disorder that affects everything in their daily life. Sociopaths go above and beyond themselves to make sure that other people around them have no idea that their life is something other than what it is. More than likely you have met one or two sociopaths in your life and not even realize it.

Psychopaths on the other hand are very flamboyant with how they deal with their disorder. Some famous psychopaths that you might know about are Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, Theodore Bundy and David Berkowitz. These four men are famous for being some of the most notorious and manipulative serial killers in history. Not all psychopaths are as out there as these four men, however their rage is almost always as intense, it just depends on how they channel it.



Characteristics of a sociopath are as followed :

1. Sociopaths are very charming.
2. Sociopaths can be extremely manipulative and will try to con you whenever possible.
3. Sociopaths feel that they are entitled to everything.
4. Sociopaths will lie continuously to get what they want. They can even sometimes manipulate a lie detector.
5. Sociopaths have no remorse, shame or guilt.
6. Sociopaths will show love and happiness only when it serves their purpose. None of the feelings are genuine.
7. Sociopaths have no room for love in their life.
8. Sociopaths need to have excitement in their lives or live on the edge.
9. Sociopaths have lack of empathy hen their victims suffer pain that they have caused.
10. Sociopaths believe that they are all mightier than tho, there is no concern on how their behavior impacts others.
11. Sociopaths usually have a long history of juvenile delinquency as well as behavior problems.
12. Sociopaths will never take blame for anything they have done to anyone no matter if it is family or friend.
13. Sociopaths have many sexual partners and tend to act out many sexual acts.
14. Sociopaths rarely stay in one place for a long time (home/work).
15. Sociopaths will change themselves if they know it will keep them from being found out.

Characteristics of a psychopath are as followed:

1. Psychopaths use superficial charm to lure their victims.
2. Psychopaths are extremely self-centered.
3. Psychopaths must always do something to keep themselves from boredom.
4. Psychopaths are very deceptive and tend to lie continuously.
5. Psychopaths show no remorse of guilt towards their victims.
6. Psychopaths are very predatory and usually will live off other people.
7. Psychopaths have many sexual partners in their lifetime.
8. Psychopaths are very impulsive with their lifestyle.
9. Psychopaths are always blaming other people for their actions.
10. Psychopaths never have a realistic view of their lives. (king of the world or from another planet)
11. Psychopaths always want psychological gratification in sexual and criminal activities.
12. Psychopaths tend to try suicide, rarely succeeding.

If you are interested in learning more about the difference of psychopaths and sociopaths I would definitely recommend you reading two specific books. The first book is Violent Attachments by J. Reid Meloy. The second book I recommend reading is The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout.


Both books will bring you into the minds of both personality disorders which will allow you to understand even greater the difference in the two.

Source : What is a Psychopath - http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath_2.htm
Source : Pschyopath - http://www.wikipedia.com
Source : Sociopath - http://www.wikipedia.com

DSM IV Axis II - The Church's Dirty Little Secret Part II

In this posting I wanted to just list the compre-hensive catalog of some of these disorders. I will pick a few, over the next few posts, and talk about how they might fit in to the local Evangelical congregation.

A couple of caveats first. As I've said before, a mental diagnoses is a matter of degree (and HUG alluded to in his comments). We each can have some of these traits at times. But at some point along that continuum it really does become a pathological mental illness.

I can say generally, the cause behind these disorders are the effects of the fall on humans. But a little more specifically, it always seems to come down to nature & nurture. For some, it is more of nature (genetics effecting the complex functioning of the brain) and for others there is more nurture (early childhood rearing).

The problem with the church, and why I do think they are naive, is that they discount the fields of psychiatry, seeing them has "humanist," and put all human behavior in simplistic, dualistic terms . . . good guys and bad guys. Sin, and fruits of the spirit. However, in some people evil and goodness are so mixed (at least in how they present themselves) that Christians don't know how to react. Promote them to not only pastor . . . but the head of the denomination . . . or expel them as troublemakers.

I really wish that we could have a Sunday school class about mental health (and mental illness). But even to suggest so (which I have before) will bring outrage in 90% of the Evangelical churches. You might get by with it in a more mainline, old-somewhat more liberal, denomination.

I welcome any comments or personal experiences. And, if you figure out that I am mentally ill . . . please don't tell me. I'm enjoying the illusion that I'm sane.

Cluster A (odd or eccentric disorders)

* Paranoid personality disorder: characterized by irrational suspicions and mistrust of others

* Schizoid personality disorder: lack of interest in social relationships, seeing no point in sharing time with others

* Schizotypal personality disorder: characterized by odd behavior or thinking



Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic disorders)

* Antisocial personality disorder: "pervasive disregard for the law and the rights of others."

* Borderline personality disorder: extreme "black and white" thinking, instability in relationships, self-image, identity and behavior

* Histrionic personality disorder: "pervasive attention-seeking behavior including inappropriate sexual seductiveness and shallow or exaggerated emotions"

* Narcissistic personality disorder: "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy"



Cluster C (anxious or fearful disorders)

* Avoidant personality disorder: social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoidance of social interaction

* Dependent personality disorder: pervasive psychological dependence on other people.

* Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (not the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder): characterized by rigid conformity to rules, moral codes, and excessive orderliness