5

Some personality disorders like psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder are considered by clinicians to be difficult if not impossible to treat. Wikipedia summarises the difficulties with treating psychopathy as follows:

Psychopathy has often been considered untreatable. Its unique characteristics makes it among the most refractory of personality disorders, a class of mental illnesses that are already traditionally considered difficult to treat. People afflicted with psychopathy are generally unmotivated to seek treatment for their condition, and can be uncooperative in therapy. Attempts to treat psychopathy with the current tools available to psychiatry have been disappointing. Harris and Rice's Handbook of Psychopathy says that there is currently little evidence for a cure or effective treatment for psychopathy; as yet, no pharmacological therapies are known to or have been trialed for alleviating the emotional, interpersonal and moral deficits of psychopathy, and patients with psychopathy who undergo psychotherapy might gain the skills to become more adept at the manipulation and deception of others and be more likely to commit crime. Some studies suggest that punishment and behavior modification techniques are ineffective at modifying the behavior of psychopathic individuals as they are insensitive to punishment or threat. These failures have led to a widely pessimistic view on its treatment prospects, a view that is exacerbated by the little research being done into this disorder compared to the efforts committed to other mental illnesses, which makes it more difficult to gain the understanding of this condition that is necessary to develop effective therapies.

Christians believe however that there is no class of person that is beyond the hope of the Gospel, and that when a person is united to Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, God begins the process of their sanctification, which will be completed in the resurrection. Christians should therefore be increasingly empathetic people as God teaches us to love others with his overflowing love.

Personality disorders like psychopathy are characterised by reduced or in severe cases seemingly non-existent empathy for others. While we may not have developed any psychotherapeutic strategies for teaching those with personality disorders to genuinely love others, God can accomplish what is impossible for us. So I was wondering if there are any Christians who have been clinically diagnosed with a personality disorder like psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder who have written or given spoken testimonies about their experiences of the power of God to sanctify and transform their lives, and whether that sanctification has included an increased sense of empathy?

2
  • 1
    I have not seen a case of a psychopath who either got cured or responded to treatment but there is a case that shows that psychopathy can be treated, against the usually held view that it is treatment resistant. See link: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24684220
    – R. Brown
    Aug 21, 2020 at 2:31
  • Your positive attitude towards psychology and probably psychiatry also is not healthy! Great place to start to take the wool off your eyes would be to read "Cracked - the Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry" by James Davies. Best wishes, Andrew Shanks, BA Joint Honours, Computer Science & Psychology. Mar 10, 2021 at 10:28

3 Answers 3

3

Here is the testimony of David Wood, a formally anti-social-disorder-diagnosed atheist turned Christian.

Here is a variation of his testimony given to an audience, in 23:30 he states his formal diagnosis as anti-social personality disorder made by the mental hospital he was put into.

1
  • 1
    Wow! Worth listening to the first 27 minutes in order to get to the point where the transformation took place in the life of this seriously disturbed young man.
    – Lesley
    Aug 22, 2020 at 10:15
0

There are several studies based on testimony and interviews:

5
  • I am less interested in borderline personality disorder than psychopathy and ASPD (as it apparently is more treatable.) The first and last link don't seem relevant to the question, but the others could still have some interesting testimony. I had been thinking of the kind of autobiographical testimony Christians often share, but good thinking that research like this will often include quotes from those being studied.
    – curiousdannii
    Aug 20, 2020 at 7:55
  • 1
    Childhood Abuse is a frequent cause for developing BPD, which is why it is included.
    – Codosaur
    Aug 20, 2020 at 7:57
  • That doesn't make it relevant to the question.
    – curiousdannii
    Aug 20, 2020 at 7:58
  • The question asks for testimonials in "diagnosed personality disorders"
    – Codosaur
    Aug 20, 2020 at 7:59
  • Does the final link actually include testimony from such people? The abstract doesn't sound like it does.
    – curiousdannii
    Aug 20, 2020 at 8:01
0

Not sure to what extent her old personality traits fall within the psychopathic spectrum, but this woman's testimony may be relevant to the question. It's the second testimony that I provide as example in a possibly related question that I asked a few months ago on Psychology.SE. The testimony is quite impressive in my opinion due to the multiple mental health transformations she experienced in a very short time span, but in particular, this woman testifies about the sudden acquisition of loving and compassionate qualities in her character, sharply contrasting her previous decades-long depressive, resentful and hateful traits.

This is a quote from her own video's description:

THIS IS MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF HOW I WENT FROM BEING COMPLETELY, ADAMANTLY ATHEIST WITH SERIOUS LONG-TERM MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, TO HAVING A POWERFUL, PERSONAL, LIFE-CHANGING ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST. IT IS ABOUT HOW HE SET ME FREE OF MY VERY SERIOUS EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS AND ADDICTIONS, AND HOW HE CHANGED MY HEART IN ASTOUNDING, LOGIC-DEFYING WAYS!! PLEASE SHARE THIS VIDEO WITH ANYONE YOU THINK NEEDS HELP! GOD BLESS YOU ALL

And here a few quotes from the video itself:

29:27: [...] just going your whole life without believing, having no hope, believing in nothing, not believing in God, not believing in Jesus. Just not having hope my whole life, you know, broke me. And, I confessed all my sins and I cried like a baby, and I made an authentic effort to start following him. I changed so rapidly that I didn't even know myself [...] So, the bulk of the changes that took place in me were in the first few days and the next few months. And, I'm asking people to really listen to this part carefully and really consider what I'm saying. Ok. So, in the first few days I just felt ... I just felt different in ways that I couldn't explain. I felt darkness started to drain out of me. I stopped being angry, I stopped hating people. [...] I started loving people that I used to hate [sigh]. If you hated somebody, imagine loving them, through and through, like, loving them, and feeling compassion for them. I stopped being depressed. No more depression, it was just gone. No more crying. No more thoughts of suicide. My pornography addiction stopped. My stealing addiction stopped [crying on camera]. And those first few months, I felt like I was being emptied out of all that darkness [...]

32:50: [...] I really want you to stop and think about what I just said, ok? Do you any of you know what a pornography addiction is like? That I had that for decades. That I had depression for even longer, for decades. Anger and hatred for decades. Stealing compulsively for decades. Do you understand how many years of therapy it would take to get rid of even one of those problems, and with no relapses. I've had no problems with these things since that day. Since I started believing in Jesus. No therapy, no medication. Just Jesus Christ. Please, think about that. That stuff is impossible if it's not God [...]

42:41: [...] when I started believing in Jesus, I was so overwhelmed by all the changes that took place in me, you know, I wasn't angry anymore, didn't hate people anymore, the depression was gone, the pornography and stealing addictions were gone, I was changing so much, so quickly, I didn't even realize until three months after I started believing in Jesus that I wasn't attracted to women anymore [...]

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .