Tattoos and Anti Social Personality Disorder
Dr. Cardasis is a forensic psychiatrist; as opposed to a clinician. He concludes that a person's tattoos makes it more likely than not the person has anti social personality disorder. This is a rather general conclusion and my point in blogging this message is to illustrate how behavior can be interpreted and based on studies like this. In terms of litigation of brain injury cases we may have to deal with potentially false conclusions about ourselves made by forensic experts who make a living testifying in court.
Dr. William Cardasis has worked at the Michigan Center For Forensic Psychiatry since 1996, where he is currently Director of the Male Admissions Unit, and in private practice of forensic psychiatry since 1997. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and has rendered over one hundred court testimonies as an expert witness in forensic psychiatry.
The presence of tattoos on forensic psychiatric inpatients should alert clinicians to a possible diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), and also about the potential for histories of suicide attempt, substance abuse, and sexual abuse, according to research published today in Personality and Mental Health.
ASPD is a mental disorder characterised by several psychological and behavioural phenomena, including a lack of empathy and remorse, a low tolerance for anxiety, and shallowness. People with ASPD prefer action to thought, and pathological lying, cheating, stealing, physical aggression and drug abuse are not uncommon. To be diagnosed with ASPD, the individual must have developed this behaviour before the age of 15, and as such is qualitatively different from the idea of a scheming, dishonest business person or politician, unless the behaviour began earlier in life.Cardasis W., Huth-Bocks A. and Silk K.; Tattoos and Antisocial Personality Disorder Personality and Mental Health 2008: Volume 2, Issue 3, 171-182. DOI: 10.1002/pmh.43
