Published on 12, July, 2020
Is it moral to punish and put people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder with psychopathic features in jails or prisons instead of forensic correctional facilities?
First of all, jails or prisons don't have excellent training to handle those two personality disorders correctly if it is severe or profound, even if a prison psychiatrist or psychologist is trying to help severely mentally ill prisoners fix their thoughts and conduct.
Another issue is that people with severe or profound Narcissistic Personality Disorder or severe or profound Antisocial Personality Disorder with psychopathic features might be legally sane and competent to stand trial. Still, they have this strange nihilistic delusional view of this world. When they commit crimes, many also have a delusion that rules don't apply to them, due to disregard for right and wrong, and also black and withe thinking, with no grounds for the middle ground.
I hope you guys understand where I am coming from with this issue.
People with NPD or ASPD with psychopathic tendencies have different neurological wiring, and they can understand and rationalize what is right from wrong, but they might not have the feelings to care about it, unless it's to their benefit. They put themselves first above all others, and that includes living by their own rules, and not those made by other people. They want the freedom to do anything they want, and to get anything they want, even if it means taking advantage of people and using them in order to get it. To stop them means you're against them.
It's very challenging to try and fix these types of individuals. Why? Well, because they put themselves first, they only value themselves and their own words. They don't care about other people, and they won't listen to what other people have to say, because they don't want anyone to have authority over them. They see themselves as the ultimate authority. So even if you put them into a correction facility to try and change and fix them, they don't see a problem with themselves, because in their mind, they are the best person in the entire world, and who are you to say to the best person in the world, that they need to change? You're a less valuable person in their eyes, so your opinion doesn't matter to them.
I think that it's rare that people with NPD and ASPD will actually change, but if they do, that comes from whether or not they want to change, not from other people trying to impose change upon them. If they realize that people just keep leaving their lives, it might be enough for them to want to change. But who knows. Some break the law, some don't. I mean they can be hard to be around, but not all of them commit heinous crimes against humanity.
Is it moral to put someone with NPD or ASPD with psychopathic tendencies in prison? It depends on what they do. They are the least likely to want to face the consequences of their actions, or abide by anyone else's rules other than their own. I mean, they can rationalize what's right from wrong, and they can know that they are hurting someone, but they just might not have the empathy to care about it. Some of them even think it's fun, as long as they can get away with it. I mean they won't like it if other people hurt them, but if it's not them that's being hurt, they won't care.
To say that they have a mature right from wrong is misleading because both ASPD and NPD can have cognitive distortion if it is severe to a point.