Psychological Matters

You were out late the night before, do you bother arriving on time to work the next day? Your female co-worker leaves her purse unattended on her desk; do you help yourself to a few dollars? People diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder have problems with these types of scenarios, often choosing the self-serving option. They could be described as “conscience-less.” To understand the problem of the Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), it is necessary to examine the role our conscience plays in interpersonal relationships. What exactly is a conscience? Free Dictionary defines it as “ the awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong .” Various disciplines have their own answers about how the conscience is formed. Freud believed we have psychologically internalized the parental figures of our childhood to develop a “superego.” Christians say it is God’s voice or an internalized moral code that directs u

I watched an interesting BBC (2001) movie, The Hole,  over the summer. The story begins with the main character Liz Dunn’s proposed version of the tragic deaths of her friends. We meet Liz giving her statement to the police and learn her perspective of what happened. It all started when four college students decided to spend a weekend in an underground military bunker instead of going on a school field trip. Liz had a crush on a fellow classmate and used this opportunity to get to know him better. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes apparent that Liz is lying and deliberately misleading, whereas the truth is much different. The movie then retells the weekend events. Liz is revealed as a self-serving mastermind of the horrific events that led to the deaths of her friends. She callously ignores her best friend’s plea for help in order to spend more time with her love interest, kills another friend to keep him from revealing the truth about the weekend, and then threatens